FAILURE OF PROHIBITION IN THE KING COUNTRY.

Auckland Star, Issue 66, 19 March 1900, Page 2

FAILURE OF PROHIBITION IN THE KING COUNTRY.

Rev. Dr. Hosking, President ol the 1 Free Methodist Assembly, in the course of his sermon at the Mt. Eden Free Methodist Church on Sundayevening, referred to Prohibition in the King- Country as a dismal, sorry, and absolute failure, lie said that civilisation 'had brought with it a vast- collection of duties and obligations unknown in olden times, as nations arise one after the other, and the 'human race increases, a necessity •arises for more complex legislation. jNew ages require diiierent laws. As people get educated, so reforms that are not based on moral suasion become difficult to enforce. The liberty of man is a priceless treasure handed down to us from our forefathers. For that liberty we tight to the very death. i\ ro number of a majority should, however tyrannise over the liberties of a minority. There should be an appeal to the reason, the conscience, and the will. If you push moral reforms bylegislative enactment against the will of a. people, you arouse the devil in man, and a dire obstinacy is the re-1 suit. In the King Country a few people, mostly natives, are tyrannised over, they think, by the Parliament of our country. It is heart-rending to j go amongst the people of that district, I have paid periodic visits there, and 1 have had opportunities of gauging the moral life of the people. The natives there are degrading thernslvese by the drink. Some of the vilest stuff human beings can consume is being clandestinely dealt out in the whares and shanties of the settlements in that vast territory. If prohibition in the King Country is a sample of what prohibition would do for New Zealand, then it would be the greatest curse that ever befel us. Lying, cheating, Suspecting, bribing, and cursing are the order of the day among the people who ought to be patterns of the reforming power of the Gospel. My conviction is that licensed houses under Government control would be infinitely better than the present state of things, and I mean to lift up my voice in the interest of a crushed and degraded people. It is an insult to Auckland, that a little over 100.miles away we are aiding and abetting the captivity and misery of a people who are of the same blood as ourselves. We absolutely refuse to allow these people to do what we pride ourselves in doing, i.e., express our opinions at the ballot box. If a man is determined to drink intoxicating liquor, to force [him to be temperate by Act of Parliament amounts to tj-unny. Suppose we passed a law compelling people to go to church! It would do more harm than good. A man who goes to church by force gets no good when he is there. As intelligence increases, extreme prohibition of anything useful by sheer force must fail. We have to educate*first. We must appeal to the best sides of man to reform him. Pugilistic prohibition is an appeal to the very worst side of man. To preach a Gospel of love in the King' Country on a Sunday, and on the Monday go about ensnaring the sly grog sellers, is, to the native mind, the sheerest mockery, and the most arrant mockery. Moral reforms, when not accomplished by education and moral suasion, must wait. . Education is a slow process. Public opinion takes time to shape itself aright. There are others than natives who still believe that intoxicating liquor does them good when taken in moderation. To force a man against his conviction to practice a moral virtue is a reversal of the Divine method, and degenerates into the direst tyranny. We have no right to question the sincerity of the people who believe in stimulants because we hold opposite opinions. "Let every man," says the Scriptures, "be fully persuaded in his own mind." : We have not tried moral suasion in the King Country. I only know of one lecture on temperance ever delivered in the King Country, but I •have known parsons who have made it their business to go there to try and catoh the sly grog sellers, get them arrested, and brought to Mt. Eden Gaol. It took me some time to convince the people in that district that I, as a Methodist parson, came amongst .them to do them good, I was taken for a detective in the guise of a parson; I was denied the common necessaries of life; but I am now able to go there and move in and out amongst the people as a friend. It is a screaming farce to talk about sending missionaries to China, India, and foreign countries, when we have thousands of people at Our very doors who are as ignorant of the Gospel as any of the darkest races of Africa! It is 'hypocrisy of the basest type. Let those of the cities who are so anxious to give the people the power to have licenses or do without them go up and preach and practise that doctrine to the Kingites. I hold no brief for licenses, but I must certainly confess I infinitely prefer the licensing system, to the one now prevailing in that district. Ask the children of that territory what they think of Christ, heaven, or hell, and they will laugh' you to scorn. It is nothing short of heathenism, and the prohibition parsons are largely responsible for it. ..Tyranny, and Christianty cannot live under the same roof. First free the man, then talk religion to him. But we bind him in chains and tell him _t is good for him; and he mocks us. "0 Liberty, what crimes have been wrought in thy name," said a person when brought face to face with the guillotine; and, looking at prohibition In the King Country, we are amazed and saddened, and exclaim, "0, Prohibition, what misery has been wrought ,in thy name!" We are, consciously or unconsciously, undoing the "work done

by a noble band of pioneer missionaries who, in the early days, came out to this colony and tried to educate the Maoris in the Gospel of love and liberty. We must more and more emphasise the. doctrine of temperance in all things, and appeal to the intellect

and not to the police to spread the Gospel. Parsons and police are al-

right in their way, but when the parboil becomes the policeman, he should receive a fresh ordination. "The law," we are told, "was given hy Moses, but grace aud truth came by Jesus Christ." Our duty is to emphasise principles, as Christ did, and not go back to the old Gospel of law that is as hard as the stone of the decalogue. The personal effort to enlighten and help by loving deeds will soon succeed where extreme legislative force will certainly fail. We must make a change of front to the native race if we intend to evangelise them. We have tried prohibition, and that has failed; now let us try licenses, regulation, and temperance education, and we may succeed.