SIR W. HAHCOURT AND THE SALVATION ARMY.

Clutha Leader, Volume XVI, Issue 832, 27 June 1890, Page 7

SIR W. HAHCOURT AND THE SALVATION ARMY.

Twenty-five freeholders of the town of Whitchurch met recently and passed resolutions approving the efforts of tha magistrates and police to suppress open air meetings of the Salvation Army in their town. Copies of the resolutions having been forwarded to Sir William Harcourt, the right hon. gentleman sont the following reply ; — •' Malwoocl, Lynhurst, October 27th. — Sir, — I havo to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 26th, enclosing certain resolutions purporting to have been passed by the freeholders of the borough of Whitchurch on the 24th insl. I presume from your sending me these resolutions that you invite my opinion upon them. I am at a loss to understand why this matter should be supposed to concern exclusively, or even principally, the freeholders. In my opinion the greater freedom and the less interference permitted in such matters the better. That the objects contemplated by the Salvation Army are good is not denied. The slight inconveniences produced hy their occasional meetings do not, I think, warrant or justify a fussy and unnecessary interference with their proceedings. To strain the technical interpretation of the law for the purpose of haling such people to prison is, in my judgment, not to increase but to diminish respect for the administration of justice. If this matter had been treated from the first with a rational toleration it would never have reached its "present dimensions, and I should strongly advise, instead of the " largely increased force of police" recpm mended in these resolutions, the application of a little common sense to the treatment of this question, which will probably supply a remedy at once nioro economical and more effectual. — Your obedient servant, W. V. Harcouiit.— - Tho Mayor, Whitchurch.'