THE DISINGENUOUSNESS OF PROHIBITIONISTS.

Hastings Standard, Issue 143, 12 October 1896, Page 4

THE DISINGENUOUSNESS OF PROHIBITIONISTS.

[To TflK EI'ITOI!.] Sir, —-In your issue of October 7, I regret to see, but am not surprised at its appearance, a letter from "AntiHumbug," in which he states that the Rev John Ilobbs, having taken the vow of a Good Templar, is bound to an obligation which runs : —" \ou shall abstain from all intoxicating drinks as a beverage, and you shall do all in your power to drive it from our land.'" It will be news for most of your renders to know that this is a deliberate misrepresentation. The obligation of a (lood Templar runs : '• That you will not make, buy, sell, use, furnish, or cause to be furnished to others, as a beverage, any spirituous or malt liquors, wine, or cider, and that you will, in ail honorable ways, discountenance their use in the community, so long as your act is not inconsistent with your duties as a Christian and a citizen." It is neither Christian nor anything else that is good to pen falsehoods about one's neighbor ; but falsehood and uncharitableness are the stock-in-trade of the Prohibitionists. The facts are all against them. Prohibition never has and never will prohibit. The person who addressed audiences in your town on the question of Prohibition in America —Patterson, 1 believe, was his name—simply stated what was not true when he averred that Prohibition had been successful in Topeka. it was in Topeka that Mr Charles Louisson, of Christchurch, purchased whisky in the hotel he stayed at. It is in Topeka where, in the daily papers, there are more cases of drunkenness reported than in the places of a corresponding size where licenses are granted for the sale of alcoholic liquor.—l am, &c., J. T. M. lloitxsuY. Wellington, Oct. «, 1 *!.)(>.