CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6342, 16 March 1882, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

♦ THE LICENSING ACT AND THE ;maoris at rotorua. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —It is with rio ordinary degree of joy I hail the news from Ohineinutu that the law regarding the prohibition of the sale of intoxicating drinks to the Maoris has actually taken etl'ect in that district, having been enforced from the Ist inst. Who that is a true friend of the Maori will not rejoice? Who that has looked upon one of those Bacchanalian orgies at Ohineinutu, when the town is literally reeling with a mass of drunken, crazed, and maddened men and women, when the cries, songs, curses, and danees are too hellish to describe, will not rejoice that they have rulers in the land who have opened their eyes to the horrors of this condition of things ? Can anyone who has seen an innocent babe nursing at the breast of a drooling, drun, ken mother, imbibing in the very first days of its infancy the germs of an appetite that must result in ruin, argue the injustice of such a law—a discriminating law it may be, but it is one that will bring with it God'a blessing! l'owder is not given to the Maoris because it is a dangerous article for them to handle, and now, if the Government is in earnest, and the prohibition law is not allowed to become a dead letter, rum will not be given to the Maoris, and thus with this more dangerous element of the two, they will not be permitted to work their own destruction. Many have declared themselves staunch friends of the Maoris. Now is the time for them to prove their genuine friendship by in every way encouraging the Government in its efforts to suppress that chief among the evils which ar- the undoubted sources of the numerical deterioration and moral de pravity of the native race. With the suppression of drink will comc, perhaps, the revival of Christianity among these people. What missionary in the land can reach the heart of a drunken Maori ? Then it is from these good teachers we should expect the firmest support of such an ordinance. For they must know, as well, if not better than we do, that rum and religion are preeminently antagonistic. To regenerate the Maori, that death draught must be taken from him.—l am, &c., W. P. Syow.