THE "NO-LICENSE" MEETING.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13230, 25 September 1908, Page 8

THE "NO-LICENSE" MEETING.

TO THE IDITOB OF "THE riIESS." , Sir,—ln reply to the letter of "-Moderate Drinker" in yesterday's issuo, may I bo permitfceti to subniit a few lines to explain my own attitude as a churchman an respect to ".No-iicon&e?'' It may bo.sufficiently typical to account for somo part ot tho Anglican agitation. 1 am a business ma>a who has satisfied himself by. experiment that the Scriptures are true. I find them to be essentially a businiees book treating on th« great subject in wiiach I am interested—profit and loss. In this book, if language has any meaning, there aro oertaim pTaim directiions for conducting one's affairs so as to arrive at the maximum gain. As these directions are easily understood,- I do not spiritualise them, but take them at their literal value as X would my business correspondence. So doing,' I find loss threatened to those by whiom offenoes come, and I find also that druaikards aro claE»od with offenders pi tho gi-eatest enormity, a.nd aro punished to extremity. Drunkenness, therefore, is an offence. . Wero I to vote for license, my own common-sonno tells mo that 1 should be responsible,, in somiie sn'all measure, for the drunkenness" happening in Christchurol}. subsequently. To my vote some part of that drunkenness would unquestionably bo due. ••■•■.'■. Like all business moo I minimise my risks, and, therefore, vote"No-tocense.- 8 — Youts, etc., ; RECRUIT. - TO TCTB'EDITOB OF "THE PRESS." \ Sir,—Your oorTospondcnt""3ilcideTato Drinker." in a letter published iri.your 'paper this dey, does, indeed, give tho cl<jfgy of the Church of England, and all right-thinking members of tho Church something to read and- reflect about. . ~ . ■'•-•• ■'■-.- For histanoe, it shows to what extent the liquor traffic will deaden the religious life in even a moderate drinker when ho oau write thft foßoFWing:—"Compulsory total abstinence from ;.tbo use of alcoholic liquors has, and can have, no tendency to awaken or strengthen the religious sense in .men; and if No-lioense 'prevailed throughout the length and breadth of New aealajid i to-morrow, hot a single individual would go to church in oonsequenoe.'" Clergymen of. the Church of England, think of the above, when you arewalkr ing round your pjarishee, 'end when you see the result of the drink traffic, ask yourselves if we must keep the- trada in existence to fill your chnrchee. Will some clergyman answer 'Moderate Drinker'si" letter by giving their experience of what they see? * / When Bishop Julius was the honoured Temperance leader in Ballarat, •he said that "the evils orising from strong drinJc were so great that they could not bo exaggerated." I may say that I am a Churchman, and will conclude with the following extract:—-"There are none co blind as those who won't seo." I am a Churchman, and when I read the list of daily engagements of. our Bishop—including confirmations—l ask myself what becomes of -all those oonfirmed and thosa of us who ar© practical working men are compelMl to retort that intoxicating liquor does more to lead the young man .and young woman astray like lost sheep than anything else under the sun. So, lot us "pray more earnestly the Collect for erentid-e—"Lighten our darkness, we beseech Thee,-O Lord."— iiours, etc., , CHURCHMAN.