To the Fathers and Mothers of Otago and Southland.

Evening Star, Issue 16821, 24 August 1918, Page 2

To the Fathers and Mothers of Otago and Southland.

The following resolution is submitted for your consideration:— /'That the Fathers and Mothers of Otago and Southland desire to express their strong conviction that the Prime Minister of Great Britain (Mr Lloyd George) was fully justified in saying:—' We are fighting Germany, Austria, and Drink,* and as far as I can see, the greatest of these deadly foes is Drink. 1 " Whatever may be the Public Opinion on the question of Moderate Drinking, the Fathers and Mothers of Otago and Southland are in their opinion that for a Mother going to welcome her returning son to find that, weakened by wounds and privations suffered in fighting the Kaiser in Europe', he has fallen a victim to Dsink in his own homeland is not only undignified, un-British, and wholly unworthy, but that it is simply Intolerable beyond words that such 'a thing should be possible in a great, intellectual, and progressive country like ours. " Thousands of Fathers and Mothers all over Otago and Southland have sent their sons to fight the Kaiser, and feel keenly that the war is being prolonged and victory deferred because of the strangk-hold which DRINK has ' got upon England and other parts of the Empire. We greatly honor and appreciate the action of the people of U.S.A and Canada in the courageous and uncompromising way in which they realised 'that they most first achieve the" ovcithrGw of before the}' could hope to apply the whole strength of the nation in the struggle against the Kaiser. " Further, the Fathers and Mothers of Otago and Southland believe that this is a time when every true British subject" should units In one oonifnost endeavor to follow the example of U.S.A. and Canada in this matter so as to bring the War more speedily to a successful conclusion." ALL FATHERS AMD MOTHERS WHO W3S"2 TO SUPPORT THIS RESOLUTION MAY 00 SO BY SIGNiHG AT ONCE THE PROHIBITION POLL PETITION.

has been interested in politics all liis life, and when he was a boy he would ramble all over the West Riding of Yo-ksf.ire to listen to the eloauence of Gladstone and Bright. Dr Jowett's sermons are the result of prolonged thought, wide reading, careful and laborious preparation. He delivers them with passionate and exuberant earnestness. His sermons arc moral tonics, and he is just the preacher for war time. —Contributed to the ' Daily Chronicle.'

fact that lime is money. Time was neither moix-v nor anything else to Maria. She had a wax of rising ;it 4 or 5 or 6 in the morniuv; and working until 10 or 11 or 12 at uifiut. tnkinc h«r maals when sin l wag huim;:v .ind sl'.-eoiru when p.ho ivj« tir<>d. time, and hid a. v.-ay of fitting down at the Vitciifji i;ih!u and dropping to sleep_for an hour or two. while the dishes waited and t!w Lady Eremite, wrung her hands in ck-spair.

THE CHURCH AND YOUNG PEOPLE " Artifex," in the 'Manchester Guardian,' writes :—My post-bag supplies interesting evidence that this column has readers in many parts oi iin> world. I have had letters recently from North India, Ceylon, the Malay Suite-', China, West Airiei, and several part.; hi America. Foreign mails aro so ; ,h.v ■■>.:• d so uncertain at present that it is not wonderful that my last letter from abroad touches on a subject discussed many months ago. But it is 100 interesting not to bo quoted. Tho writer says : You write a lot about the failure of the Church. Personally I think a good deal of this self-depreciation by the clergy is mistaken, and on the wnole I doubt if tho laymen have much right to throw stones" at tho Church. You get out of everything in proportion to what 'you put into it. If a man merely goes to church at stated intervals but doesn't bother himself to say his daily prayers (which, by the way, aro an exceedingly difficult exercise), he can't complain because in a time of great stress he finds his religion has no meaning for him. The trouble with us Englishmen is that we seldom exert ourselves to think clearly, and certainly we are not taught much to do so at school. There, if I may venture to say so, is a fault of tho Church and of the clergy, that they might get-hold of the boys "more than "they do and teach them to think. I learnt masses of divinity at school, but practical religion, the tremendous moaning and responsibilities of the Creed, were not touched upon in any way that left a trace on my memory. Still, I am not blaming the "Church. I am blaming myself, becauso, like millions of others, I didn't trouble to think, and the realisation of the necessity for doing so has only been borne in on me later by the more or less painful experiences of lifo. It's a weak point

Time, it happened, was a word not- iri hfr lexicon. For the. Lady Eremite, who bad ;i prrjiidife in favor of prompt meak, (his 1 u-k was a frequent source of sighing and h.iptes lifting of hands. She had to t-di IK-rsclf more often thrui ah-' liked that a. .kind heart, {iftor alj. was morn than promptitude, a reflection of which tin; Happy Eremite reminded licr at intervals when her cfiiekiicv as it house, vrif':' threatened to overwhelm her appreciation of Maria's qualities ji.s a human be : ng. For th-a Happy Eremite Liked Maria. She was a slight, agile person, with a mouth that could have surrounded a popover without denting it anywhere. Her indifference lo time, which had a way of aently wrecking the nice calculations of the Lady Eremite, had revved her, on the other hand, to good effect in defying time's ravages. She never told how old she was, hut it took no mathematical genius, adding the. years she said she had been iu this place and the years sho had been in that, to calculate that sho must be moving toward sixty. She might have been anything between forty .and seventy. The Happy Eremite had ahvavs found it rather pL-asant, on the way to the furnace, to .stop far a minute for a friendly exchange of courtesies. Maria, did not read tiio papers. Maria did not read anything. Marm "did not know how to read. bo the. Happy Eremite- always gave her th-e r.-ev/K, with a bit of banter thrown in. But on this particular evening ho did net feel like quips and levity. The news from Franco was like a cold hand clutching- his heart. " There's a terrible battle, doing on, Maria," he said, rather solemnly. "Who's doin' it?" "The Germans.' - "Humph!" grunted Maria. Sho -was shaking the fire, and the Happy Eremite was not certain •whether the savage exclamation was directed at tho enemy or at a stubborn clinkor. i