THE BARE MAJORITY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 634, 11 October 1909, Page 9

THE BARE MAJORITY.

Sir,—r apprehend that you do not hold yourself responsible in the least for the opinions l of those to. whose letters you liberally grant a place in tho columns of your influential journal. I feel emboldened, therefore, to speak with freedom on ii public movement., whicli is coming daily into more 'prominence, I mean' the No-License political movement, which, as engineered; by persons of oxtremo views, cannot, be long differentiated from "total abstinence." Tho question: "What will this ironto ?" peremptorily demands the gTavo attention of New Zealand citizens. The subject should be weighed with no one-sided predilections. We must look 'liberty" fairly in thefaco and see what it means in, tho comprehension of the temperance reformers. If the individual thinks of his personal liberty to use beverages common to mankind in all ages—which, with an end in view, 1 are now termed alcoholic, that the next step, to brand them "poisonous" may bo easy—ho is demanded to sacrifice his freedom for the chimerical good of the community; and a '"bare majority" rote on a Dominion option gained. by the anti-liquor party would coerco' half the population to do the same..'The party who lacked tho few necessary votes would truly exclaim: "This is government by the people with a vengeance!" Shall wo say half a million coorced by half a million plus; one ? Bnt it is not tho liberty of the individual viewed as a unit of the State only, it goes deeper than that, it challenges his divine right as a creature. It becomes quite' easy to see that the doctrine of prohibition is jf denial of ono of the most important pillars of any community ; of men, viz.,'religious liberty, and: as such it will doubtless como to be reitarded as .the peoplo Krow in. intelligence. Why . should welldoers bo dictated "to by those who class (them a.ll ono with evildoers? These arguments may bo thought throadbaro, but aro they answerable? I—l am, etc., . . , . . ■ JOHN C. EARL,