PROHIBITION.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 126, 26 November 1896, Page 2

PROHIBITION.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— Tbe Prohibition Heresy should be the title of the religious aspect of the movement. That it is heresy is unquestionable, inasmuch as ray Christian Liquor Prohibition friends are introducing a new and important article into their religious creed — to the virtual but not the formal displacement of Christ as the Saviour from all sin. They say in effect there is one sin which He is powerless to combat, viz., drunkenness, which we, wiser than God and more powerful thau Christ, intend to meet and and vanquish by the strength of the New Eedeemer— named by us Prohibition — at whose shrine we command obedience under the severest pains and penalties. Sir, it is inexpressibly sad that professing Christian teachers should treat with such contempt the sacrificial work of the Saviour, for what? A phantom which, when tried, will be found as illusive as their own religious principles and, like them, vanish into thin air, We coutend that the proposed measure is not only irreligious, but likewise very impolitic, that if carried out will make a fearful addition to the incidence of taxation. The £496,000 derived from Customs duties will have to be fouud for nought, inasmuch as the history of the movement proves that no results have attended Prohibition. In short, the tax will be lost and drink still continue to be as freely used as ever, with the additional evils of lawlessness, lies, and hypocrisy, wbich have been more or less developed by this ill-advised and foolish measure. This has been seen and felt by many States who have had the candour aad wisdom to withdraw from this foolish, expensive, and, what experience has proved, a useless measure. I regret that some clerical exponents of the scheme are trying to enlist the storekeepers on their side by rousing their cupidity, thus working on tbe baser passions of humanity — poor work for professed preachers of tbe gospel ! They say that certain storekeepers are willing to pay the licensed victuallers' fee, as an inducement for peoplo to vote for Prohibition. This very liberal offer, on their part, merely shows that they have hitherto been getting too much, or that, with true Prohibition deception, we shall have to make good the worthy dealers' generosity. Out upon such disgraceful tactics 1 How would these men like the farmers to band together and refuse to deal with men of such moral calibre as to wish to take the bread out of people's mouths and shackle with prohibitive fetters tbe free born New Zealander ? These men have proved themselves to be wretched theologists and, sir, they will prove still worse politicans. Let them confine themselves to those duties which appertain to their sacred calling, instead oi sowing broadcast the seeds of heresy, strife, and every evil work. There is no clearer proof that the movement is oi Satanic origin than the bad and bitter fruit it has already borne. Wife against husband not for Christ's sake, but for the demon Prohibition, whose image and worship they are trying to set up in this fair land. Tbe Scripture says, " Wives obey your husbinds, husbands love your wives." The Prohibition theologian teaches just the reverse. I am, etc., J. B. Roots.