WAITAKI HIGH SCHOOL AND NO-LICENSE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1166, 17 June 1911, Page 7

WAITAKI HIGH SCHOOL AND NO-LICENSE.

Sir,—As the person who accomoanied Mr. E. J. P. King to the Waitaki" High fachool, and seeing that I was present when the resolution referred to in your leading article was put, perhaps you will allow me space to make plain what the Waitaki boys really did do. The extreme brevity of the Press Association • message gives rather a false impression. The full text of the resolution, which I beg leave to quote, shows that these young men (many of them are not boys, but highly educated young men, quite a"s, if not more, fit to come to a decision on this question than the editor of the Dunedin "Evening Star"), only did what they havo a perfect right to do, i.e., expressed the conclusion that their very thorough scientific teaching on this matter drove them to as regards the drinking of alcoholic liquors, and further asked the people to remove, this unnecessary temptation from their path. The full text of the resolution was: "We, pupils of the Waitaki High School, being convinced from the scientific instruction on alcohol that we have received from time to time, that alcoholic liquors, as beverages, are invariably hurtful, desire to emphasise our belief, that No-License and prohibition are entirely for the benefit of the race, and would appeal to voters of this country to adopt these measures in order that the temptations that beset the lives of young men may be lessened by the removal of the alcoholic pitfall." This was moved bv the senior prefect, Mr. T. H. Nisbet (son of the late Dr. Nisbet, of First Church, Dunedin), and seconded by Mr. It. D. Milligan, tcnior day prefect, and carried unanimously. Both these are young men of parts, aiid very well able to decide tho merits of any question. I saw a letter to-day from Mr. Milner, the headmaster of the school, in which he said that Mr. King's lecture had aroused considerable, discussion, and enclosed a number of questions that the hoys desired answered in further illumination of the position, Jf these questions had been sent to the editor of the "Evening Star," who pooh-poohs these young men, he would, »fter recovering from reading them, have promptly sent round to find some prohibitionist who hod made a study of the subject to answer them. Had he come to me, I could not have done so, and I have read a Rood deal rm the subject. The drinker goes by prejudice and appetite, not by knowledge. Mr. F. Milner, M.A., the rector of Waitaki High School, is one of the most brilliant and up-to-date of our young men. At Waitaki he has already made an enviable name for himself and his school, and many prophesy that if he is spared, Waitaki' will become the Oxford of New Zealand. This man, with full knowledge of the responsibility-that attaches to his stutement, and after exhaustive study of the researches and experiments of Laitenen, Krnepelin. and hosts of other scientists, says:' "The man who refuses to adopt total abstinence from alcoholic liquors as beverages as his rule of life. has not an argumentative leg to stand on. The evidence in favour of total abstinence simply 'snows under' the evidence against that course."—l am, etc., G. B. NICHOLLS (of Dunedin).