GOOD TEMPLARY AND GOOD TEMPLARS

New Zealand Herald, Volume XII, Issue 4125, 2 February 1875, Page 3

GOOD TEMPLARY AND GOOD TEMPLARS

To the Editor of the Herald. Sin,—Mr. Edwin Carr is reported to have said in his speech lust evening at the Choral | J lull, on the occasion of the farewell gathering of the 1.0. G.T. to the Hon. S. D. Hastings, " that the outside i>ublic should bo thoroughly ashamed of their supineness inhold- ! ing aloof from joining the movement, -while | they must see the amount of good the Order , has achieved." Allow me to tell Mr Carr, and others of his May of thinking, that the fault docs not lie altogether at the door of the general public, but that a very large proportion of the members, including Mr. Carr himself, are answerable for the present very unsatisfactory state of things as regards the progress of Good Templarism. It is from the fact that the governing power in many of the lodges has largely fallen into the hands of three lodges, Tag, Rag, and Bobtail, to the exclusion of educated ability and broad comprehensiveness of priuciples and ideas. That parties have worked their way into the Order's chairs through sheer effrontery and impudence, perpetually rushisg i"; 5? •£ were, " where angels would fear to tread," and if it happens that a question of vital importance to the Order's well-being is brought forward by one or other of the more enlightened brethren, pounce upon it and persistently assert their right to ventilate its provisions. This is one of the reasons why the outside public view the lodges askance, and hesitate to throw in their lot with you. But I there are others equally cogent. It is patent • to all, and to none more than Mr. Carr him- | self, that many who have wriggled into power ! are actuated by one feeling alone, the adj vunccment of their own interests, the fat« ! tening of their own miserable bacon from the | lodge cofi'ers, " fretting their consequential | 1) unpens hour on the stage of Good Templar- • ism—playing their insane antics before high I heaven —enough to make the aDgels weep." j What care they for the poor degraded | drunkard ! "What interest do they erince j for his reclamation beyond his becoming a j paying member of the body ! Do not the I outside public know you have—as worthy i chiefs, worthy financial secretaries, and I worthy treasurers, men who are notorious for I their unfair (to call it by a mild term) dealings j with the outer world ? Men of so contracted ! a mind as to consider one of the main prin- | ciples of Good Templary is for its members j to go sneaking round public-houses and see- ; in'.; ".'Lullum- landlords are serving liquors at ! u;in~i'nsed hours. Men who cannot disi associate Good Templarism from teetotalism, forgetting, or perhaps nt er understanding, ' that the Order is not a so iety or association, i but a grand political organisation, having for i its whole end and sole aim the revision of . political power to root out for ever and aye • " the accursed tiling" from off the face of j the earth,—using that power when acquired • for tliat purpose, and that purpose alone. Such are at present thy gods ! Oh, Templary! | And so long as this state of things is perj mitted to last, so long will those hang back • from joining the movement who would, j when the hour of hattle arrives, be found very towers of strength and occupying prominent places in the van of the struggle. - I am, &c., _ Good TemtlAß. i Auckland, January 30, 1575.