RECEPTION OF THE TROOPS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 51, 1 March 1901, Page 3

RECEPTION OF THE TROOPS.

(To the Editor.) Sir-I had thought that the "beer or no beer" question was quite settled. Indeed I understood that your columns were closed against this question; but upon my return to Auckland I find several misleading statements have found publication, and I ask for space to refer to them. T I take exception to the rudeness o£ X Mr Seddon, who, as a guest of the citizens, is said to have used his seat at the officers luncheon table to refer to the provision made by his hosts. According to the press he said: "The men were to have cold water, aerated -water, or tea, and as they had not had sufficient 'even of that,'" etc. Of course, this was as untrue as it was ill-mannered. The press report of what actually occurred reads: "Every man had a bottle of singer-beer, or lemonade, or aerated 'waters, and tea ad lib." Ttte reporter's opinion upon t^is subject is worth more than Mr Seddon's. Even if what Mr SeCldon said had been true it would have been an outrageous, unheard-of thing for a man to rise from partaking of the citizen's hospitality to say It. The letter in your Friday's issue signed Fred 11. Wilson is another case of bad manners and misrepresentation. Even, if it were not bad form to discuss in detail the gifts of the citiaens, the grossly partiznn character of the letter would discredit it. A complete analysis of all the gifts and guarantees 'would not place the^ advocates of "no beer" in unfavourable comparison with their fellow committee men, but to drag- up the pecuniary position of citizens in the manner done by Mr Wilson is ill-bred in the last degree. I am ashamed to follow even to correct him, but it is fair to some whose names he mentions to say (hat the item, "some grapes," represented a gift to «no entertainment fund at a cost of over £20. It is to the purpose' to say that these grapes were generally appreciated by the visitors, and even more so by the three hundred or so of our own volunteers whom we were able to supply.

That the local volunteers were not better provided for was in part due to the statement made by their Commanding Officer that the men would be looked after by their own department, perhaps they would have been if the duties of canteen keeper had not been thrust upon the unfortunate Commander by the Government.

I bear testimony that the deliberations of the committees, and especially of the executive, were markedly a citizen spirit which rose superior to the "beer or no beer" question.

In my judgment, the thanks bf the citizens, and your own commendations, would bo more fitting than the unfair carping comments of Fred H. Wilson.

j^et me emphasise the one valuable bit of his letter. It is: Citizens, sec to it that you in all things attend to your citizens' duties.—l am, etc.,

WESLEY SPRAGG,

[The press reporter naturally assumed that "every mau had a bottle of gingerbeer, lemonade, or aerated waters, and tea, etc.," as agreed to by tlie committee; but we were afterwards assured that a blunder ■was made in supplying tin insufficient quantity, and that when this was •discovered at the last minute it was too late to remedy the mistake. —Ed. 12.8,]

(To the Editor.) Sir,—A few words, with your kind permission, anent the above subject. In the first place, I may state that up to the present I have cast in my vote with the Prohibitionists, as imagining- that 1 was supporting a good cause; but recent events and more consideration, of the subject has led me to look at the matter in a different light. Temperance in all our actions in this life is what we ought to aim at. 1 am thoroughly convinced that the Hon. R. Seddon voiced the opinion of all true men and women when he gave utterance to those expressions in his speech at the officers' lunch on February lfith. It must have been, very humiliating to him to have to apologise to the visitors for the insult offered to them. That this insult was felt one needed but to go amongst the men, who, of course, knew all about the paltry discussion before they arrived hero, and their expressions were av.ythlng but parliamentary with regard to those who had constituted themselves as organisers of their reception. The account of this affair will be carried over the world by these, men, and I.can imagine what a laughing stock these same organidsrs will become.

I blume the men portion of the citizens to some extent in not rolling up to form portion of the committee, but left it to be packed by Prohibitionists; in fact, turning the matter Into a political one, whereas, in fact, all party feelings, as the Hon. Seddon observed, should have been left out. Will the fact of the Prohibition apostles getting the upper hand (if they ever do) alter the moral condition of humanity? I say, no. They will merely satisfy their own party and their own vanity by having gained their point. The habits of the world will gfo on just the same, excepting that more ingenuity will spring up in

evading the laws which they (if they ga*3 their point) will cause to be made. Does their scheme include making men moral ia all things, as well a 9 legislating to cut off their beer? I hear nothing of that. Qt, what use to the community is a man who*' is a rabid teetotaler and indulges In othoß vices inimical to the safety of the community? These he keeps under a cloak, until by accident the cloak is drawn aside, and we see the villain. Such a man, I maintain, is infinitely more dangerous to the community than the acknowledged bad egg, who would not harm an innocent person knowingly, and who only carries on his wild ways with those who are of the same kidney. But this man, who is more his own enemy than that of others, is condemned, while the other is looked up to. Why? Simply because he profosset one virtue, which he proclaims from tho houee-top.—l am, etc.,

A TEMPERANCE MAN.