MORAL STANDARD

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 116, 23 November 1928, Page 8

MORAL STANDARD

PROHIBITIONIST'S CLAIM EDITORIAL REBUKE (By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.") AUCKLAND, This Day. In an editorial bearing the caption, "Prohibition and Morals," last night's "Star1! says: —"Yesterday tho Utago and Southland-Methodist Synod met at Dunodin, and the chairman of the district, the Rev. H. E.-Bellhouse, in his annual address, commented on tho defqat of Prohibition at the recent poll. According to Mr. Bollhouso the explanation of this debacle is the-moral laxity or moral anarchy that has spread to New Zealand from other countries as an aftermath of tho war. The Prohibitionists, says the reverend gentleman, find themselves in the midst of a dis- ! tinct morn) slump, and it is this widely diffused demoralisation of the people that is chiefly responsible for tho defeat of Prohibition. It seems to us that Mr. Bellhouso's remarks should not bo allowed to pass without criticism or protest. We suggest to him and those who hold his views that one reason for the failure of their crusade is tho peculiarly objectionable form of fanaticism by which his words are inspired. ■ On what principle and by what right does Mr. Bcllhouse dare to assert that all who voted against Prohibition at the polls are inferior to him and his friends in their moral principles, or their moral perceptions or their standards of personal conduct? "The Prohibitionists should realise that a very largo proportion of those hostile to their doctrines are actuated by a sense of moral duty and social responsibility quite as strong as their own. The anti-liquor party appear to have so far failed to realise that extremely gravo social and moral dangers are involved m any attempt to abolish tho use- of liquor by legislation, but, even if they are right in their opinions and their opponents, are wrong, they have no occasion to lay claim to an overwhelming and spiritual superiority. The views expressed by Mr. Bollhouse are offensive, and can only do harm to the cause- that the Prohibitionist admittedly has closely at heart."