MORAL REFORM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14855, 5 December 1911, Page 5

MORAL REFORM.

Sir, —May I ask whether it will ever be possible to read an Auckland newspaper without finding some letter on the subject of "Moral Reform." What is the matter with Auckland? As far as law can make us, I should say we are at the present time the most moral community in the world, and the saddest and dullest, excepting from the fact that by reason of borrowed money we are able to pay very high prices for the necessities of life. In yesterday's issue 1 read a letter from a " moral reformer" from Otahuhu. That gentleman's grievance was the "insidious curse of gambling," and a reflection on tho Sports Protection League. In the last six months I believe there have been six days' racing, from which _it will bo seen that the " curse " is so insidious that it is scarcely worth discussing. The Sports Protection League is the result of the persistent cant of , tihe "moral reformers." Why do they not reform themselves? Have they no backsliders? .

In this morning's issue I find tho same old agony under the heading of "The Minister's Manifesto"—a manifesto given with just the unchristian spirit one w-Md expect. I am constantly amazed and disgusted by the efforts of merely stupid people who pose as moral reformers. They are invariably of the type of the "wowser" and bigot, who compensates for tho paucity of his intelligence by the excess of bis prejudice. If our roads were reformed, if -the Minister for Railways was reformed, if our idle lands were reformed so as to produce wealth to tho countrythat would bo an achievement .to be proud of; but moral reform in a country without population— just a handful of freeborn British subjects, living under the greatest restrictive legislation in tho world—is mere nonsense. . C. R. Bailet. Manurewa, November 28.