THE CLAIMS OF THE TEMPERANCE PARTY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9628, 28 September 1894, Page 3

THE CLAIMS OF THE TEMPERANCE PARTY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, Mr. Williams has distorted my statements, put in inverted commas, as quotations from my letter, two words of abuse which I did not employ, and failed entirely to refute the reasons given for protesting against the claim of the so-called temperance party to arbitrary power. 1 did not impugn Mr. Williams' veracity, but merely supposed that his view of a particular transaction differed from _ that taken by many people. The reference in my first letter was not specially to Mr. Williams, and the matter in which he appeared to me, and to others, liable to _ the _ charge, had nothing to do with the University College. My views on prohibition had been strongly expressed in Auckland long before Mr. Williams became a member of the College Council. That that body treated me in a manner which excited the indignation of the whole English press is true, but it does nob follow that I must refrain from denouncing wrong-doing because it is supported by one of its members. Dr. Mackeliar's views with regard to right and wrong, as expressed at the Council, were certainly peculiar, but I was not aware that they were shared by Mr. Williams, until the publication of his last letter.—l am, etc., W. Steadman Aldis.