AN OPEN LETTER.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1311, 14 December 1911, Page 3

AN OPEN LETTER.

TO THE VENERABLE ARCHDEACON HARPER. Venerable sir,—On Sunday night last you made a series of sweeping charges against those who are lighting for the abolition of the liquor traffic. You specified .that your charges lay against (ho leaders and aghters. The gravamen of your charges as reported by tho press was:

"In the name of Jesus Christ we have untruths, or shall I say only half-truths, wo have, misrepresentation, wo hare slander, we have malice and bitterness, we have insinuations of worse description in tho name of Jesus Christ."

It would be a reflection on you and OTi tho position you hold in your Church to refer such language to the excitement of oratory. You no doubt deliberately said what you said. You committed yourself to charges of a di.shononrin.cr sort against the leaders of our party. Numbered in this party are many of the prominent members of your own Church. Tho leaders of tho party in this centre comprise members of the medical, legal, and clerical professions, and men prominent in every branch of business as well as representatives of Labour. An ilßiuenso amount of unpaid labour and of pecuniary sacrifice has been made by these men in the recent campaign, and they believed they fought honourably and fairly.

You now charge them categorically with "the use of untruths, or of half-truths, of misrepresentation, siaudor,. malice, bitterituss, and insinuations of worse description." You level thpfo charges not against tho rank and iilo of our 255,000 voters, but. against the leaders. You will believe that ther, as grnfSemen with somo fonse o; .honour, regard these charges x=, in-suifin-jj-Jn the last degree. You are hereby challenged to prove those chancS-..seriatim. As a clerjyman and a gpntlpmSs--. T ou will doubtless feel under obligation tfi make your general charges specific, ayl fn produce your proofs without delay. TiiC only alternative, surely, is tho prompt public, and ; unconditional withdrawal of '-vour wholesale charges against a body who, whatever their faults, are workin-" from purely disinterested motives for the joad of Immunity. \ On behalf of the Executive of the Np>T Zeoland Alliance, we are, vours faithfully, ' . IV. J. COMRIE, Chairman of the Executive. JOHN DAWSOX, Secretary. Wellington, December 12, 1911.