AN INVITATION TO SIR WILLIAM FOX.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2473, 17 May 1888, Page 2

AN INVITATION TO SIR WILLIAM FOX.

TO THE EDITOR. tint,—The following is an extract from a speech by a temperance advocate : —•" Temperate " Language. Lecturing in Duneftin hist month on " Legitimate Prohibition," <i Mr Houuliius delivered himself as follows, an ex-member of the New Zealand legislature—the Hon. Thus. Dick—being in tha chair:— . . "The idea of a man who wild liquor being an ollicer of the Church. If that did not disgrace Christianity, no adulterer or murderer would. (Applause). He did nut believe that tho whole vocabulary of hell furnished woul.s .strong enough to describe the business adequately (applause) ; it did not; they might call it hellish, diabolical, infernal, or whatever they liked, but they would fall far short of describing it as it should be described. As a preacher of the gospel, ho would never go and preach to a congregation as long as there was a man in it that would sell liquor in any shape- or form. (Loud laughter). I'iVfliy man connected with the traffic .■should be turned right out of the Church at once. Those- Churches did not deserve to proper, and he prayed God that they might not prosper till those men were turned out. . . . . They should socially ostracise every person engaged in the traffic; they should have no fellowship with them. Applause) Let them not take a brewer by tho hand and call him brother, but shun him, as all decent people should ; he should be put on the right side of the gaol." And so on, and so on." Sir W. Fox will address the people of Hamilton on the same subject to-night, as also Mr Glover. If ordinary missionaries of the Cause had been palmed off on Hamilton, I-should have remained silent, but Sir W. Fox is the head of the Temperance movement in Now Zealand ; he, is also a statesman presumably of some mark, as is shown by his title, not to speak of our recollections of him. He will therefore understand that as the leader in a groat crusade, he ia bound to explain, or at any rate explain away the utterances of his followers whether they light under his particular banner or that of Don Leopold, of Austria. More particularly is this the case whero the essence of the life towards which ali civilization is straining, perfect freedom to the individual, is sought to be abolished. That liberty doos not justify license we all know, but some of us think it does justify licenses Perhaps Sir William Fox will be good enough to answer the following questions, and thua oblige a few by no means rabid opponents. Questions,— 1. Is an adulterer or a murderer better qualified as an officer of a church than a wan who sells liquor ? 2. Is a preacher of the Gospel justified in refusing to preach to a brewer, distiller or publican ? 3, If so, on whose shoulders does the responsibility of the loss ot the brewer's, etc., soul rest? 4. Should wo socially ostracise all dealers in liquor? 5. If so,'how can Roman Catholics, in view of His Holiness'* recent decision, practice boycotting? 0. If brewers, etc., should be put on the right side of the gaol, where should gentlemen bo put for whom the whole vocabulary of licll is net strong enough? 7. Apropos of liquor dealers and Mr HiHiehin's remarks, what has Sir Win. Fox to say on tho text "There is nothing from without a man that entering into him can defile him ; but the things which como out of him, those are they that defile a man ?" For accuracy, I add the referenoo, Mark YIL, 15,— Yours truly, Oims, ;