THE PROHIBITION DEPUTATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIV, Issue 10703, 12 July 1895, Page 4

THE PROHIBITION DEPUTATION.

The explanation the Rev F. W. Isitt offers in our correspondence columns this morning will not remove the widespread impression that be made a most improper suggestion to the Premier when in Wellington last week. He declares that he could not under any circumstances have promised, to abandon a threatened prosecution against a police inspector without consulting his colleagues; hut he admits in the very next paragraph of his letter that he was anxious Mr Seddon should remember the “ pending prosecution” when considering the application for a Royal Commission. This, taken with the further admission that he “ made the suggestion” on his “own responsibility, in the belief that it pointed to possible escape from what might otherwise prove to be a painful necessity,” shows that the telegraphed report of his remarks was substantially correct, and that there was very good ground for Mr Seddon’s indignation. Mr lisitt is one of those large-hearted but wrongheaded individuals who cannot see that they are really delaying the progress of reform by the extravagance of their methods. He sincerely believes, no doubt, that everyone who cannot accept the tenets of the Prohibition faith is in league with the liquor trade, but he should have learnt by this time that nothing can he accomplished in social reform hy virulence and abuse. The experience of those one hundred and fifty delegates who, on his own showing, suffered from his indiscretion when addressing the Premier, should lead him to take a much more correct view of what is due to the people and their representatives.