FURTHER ENCROACHMENTS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1303, 5 December 1911, Page 9

FURTHER ENCROACHMENTS.

TEETOTAL TEETOTALISM PROCLAIMED. MR. HAMMOND AND MRS. BARTON. PROHIBITIONISTS' MENACE TO RELIGION. Everybody must now have seen tho cartoon representing the Prohibitionists trying to force down the statue to Liberty by the thin end of the wedge of No-License. Thut picture is a powerful representation of. the designs of the Prohibitionists. When No-License is attained, absolute Prohibition is the next step; and the present exemptions for the importation of alcohol and alcoholic beverages for manufacturing, medicinal, and .sacramental purposes will bo abolished. The encroacnments of the Prohibitionists have been alarming, anu thoy will stop short of nothing save an organised reign of tyranny and terror to carry out their irreligious, unscrupulous, and nefarious intentions. They first protested against No-License meaning no liquor in No-License districts; but since then they have cast prudence to the winds, and liavo forced the Legislature to make (as Lincoln said, a crime of that which is no crime), the importation, manufacture, sale, and use of alcoholic beverages criminal acts, punishable by fine and imprisonment. And although the present exceptions are for manufacturing, ■medicinal, and sacramental purposes, these exceptions are already proposed to be withdrawn. Leaving out of our consideration the necessity of the importation for manufacturing and medicinal purposes, and any comment upon the flagrant injustice of tbe proposition and the consequent deterrent it would be in operation to tho industrial life of tho country and the suffering and inconvenience it would entail to people generally, we would for a moment briefly speak of the religious intolerance the proposal to prohibit tho use of alcoholic liquors for sacramental purposes when the religious ordinances of several churches would ba made altogether without meaning by this new species of religious intolerance now so insidiously proclaimed by the Prohibitionists. _ . What has given occasion raise this point at tho present moment is the fact that the Rev. B. S. Hammond, the highlypaid agent of the Prohibitionists, has become the month-piece of the Prohibitionists on this particular point. We have seen how Mrs. Helen Barton, another Prohibitionist lecturer, stated she would hot allow a drop of brandy to be administered to her dying child—she said she would rather let it. die than save its life bv brandy—Justice Pring saying'she would' in doing that bo guilty of manslaughter—and that in itself would show that there is no limit—not even death itself—to the extent to which the Prohibitionists would lead or force the people to go in their hatred of alcoholic beverages. "APPROXIMATELY CORRECT." The Rev. Jlr. Hammond had submitted to him a number of questions at Ashburton on November 18th by an elector: — Elector: Does the Prohibition party contend that alcoholic liquor is an evil in itself? Rev. Hammond: Yes Elector: Are you aware, Mr. Hammond, of tho three exemptions in tho present prohibition law? Mr. Hammond: I am aware of them; yes. Elector : If Dominion Prohibition is carried \>:ill the Prohibitionists agitato for the abolition of these exemptions? Mr. Hanimond: No. Elector: Why not? You say liquor is an evil in itself. Mr. Hammond: Because wl'."n wo carry Prohibition, a few years after wo wiil have the majority ot people educated to the extent that the doctors will throw alcohol out for medicinal purposes; the churches will not use it for sacramental purposes (as, indeed, my Dwn church does not how); and it will not be necessary .for industrial purposes. ... ... .... When interviewed iii'Dunedin; Mr.' G. B. Nic.holls. another Prohibitionist being present, as to the accuracy of this report of his. meeting at Ashburton, tho , Rev. Jilri' Hammond reaffirmed the position, and declared tho report to be "approximately correct." WHAT THIS MEANS TO RELIGION. The Rev. P. Anbry, S.M., in offering objections to this latest aspect of the Prohibition political agitation, observes that "there is more than the right of using wine in moderation involved, there is the obligation of using it for religious purposes, aud that obligation has been laid upon all Christians by Christ Himself: 'This do in remembrance of me.' Whatever may be. the theories of certain divines pretending to erudition arid stating that ' the witio used in Judea in the time of Christ was unl'ermentod, the fact remains that, from time immemorial down to tho present, fermented wine has been and is used for sacramental purposes." The Rev. P. Aubry further points out that unfermonted wine soon becomes sour and unfit for human use; and be affirms that, iis far as tho Catholic Church is concerned, "tho placing of obstacles to the possession of wine is equivalent to interdicting the Mass or making its celebration very difficult. Tho law at present provides that wine can be obtained for religious purposes. How long will this guarantee last? Tho authors of this promise may withdraw it, if an excuse is found._ Behold the consciences of tho Catholic people at the mercy of a vote of Parliament or at the mercy of a majority who object to the religious sacraments of tho Church. Catholics who vote for Prohibition or regard it with favour, beware. Prohibition with regard to wino may lead to prohibition of the Miiss at a future date. Religious prsecution may oomo in through the prohibition door."

FURTHER MENACES TO RELIGION

At Uio Toiyn Hall recently some of tlic so-called religious leaders of Wellington ware touting for Prohibition and NoLicense as the saviour of the individual from the sin of drunkenness iinil the saviour of the nation from all iniquities. They were preaching, to our mind, religious suicide and degradation. If Prohibition is a saviour from sin, wo have only to extend the application of prohibition to all sins, and wo havn a righteous people! What, then, ia the need fo> the churches:' Where is the necessity fo: ministers of Tcligirm? Their churches are emptying now: they will bo empty altogether when Prohibition and No-Li-cense, the molten calves of their erection, become accepted as the saving health of the individual and the nation from all sin. . Distinguished divines all over the world have exposed the fallacious, nay, dangerous, character of thus, Aaron-like, elevating Prohibition and No-License as brazen images having any health-giving or moral potentiality. The Rev. P. Aubry, S.M.. sees not" only irreligion in the Prohibition movement hut religious persecution imminent, and the ''NewZealand Tablet," in criticising the Rev. Hammond's sums up the position for the Catholic Church iu these words: "We have no desire to prrss Qiese utterances more than the situation warrants. Wo content ourselves v.ith saying that, the baro possibility of being deprived of Mass is a prospect which no good Catholic can regard with equanimity." And no man who has anv regard for true religion can regard the Prohibition 1 propaganda as beiug other than barren of any .moral or religious force. It is a mere political ferment of the w;orst type. For . so-called religious loaders to put Prohibition and No-Lidcnse forward for the salvation of the people is littlo short of blasphemous. It is certainly a degradation of religion and a lowering of their profession as ministers of which i they ought to be, in tho writer's opinion, profoundly ashamed.*