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Oamaru Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 5097, 6 October 1891, Page 2

"How lovely are the messengers that preach the Gospel of Peace." Still lovelier are those who act up to what they preach. The Britishers have a proper appreciation of what is right in social as well as in political affairs, but custom has chair.ed the majority of us to vice, whilst we, as a tribute to conscience, strive to uphold virtue by adopting measures to undo with one hand the evil we have done with the other. The wealthy, wanton idler of the nation knows no care except that which arises from his endeavors to spend his money so as to produce for him the highest amount of gratification. One does not expect from such a man any consideration for his fellows. He is too busy in thinking about himself. But the great mass of the nation—ought they not to show some sort of consistency? We in New Zealand, it is supposed, are ruled by the best men that can be chosen from amengst us, yet we are mere imitators of the worst faults of the Old World. For instance, just as, with the Imperial Government's concurrence and with the sanction of the Church, opium was forced upon the Chinese together with Bibles and missionaries, so, in New Zealand, the vilest of intoxicants have accompanied the operations of the Christian preacher amongst the Maoris. One can readily discern the trail of this serpent through the native districts. Laziness, degradation, emaciation, and want are the inevitable curses that attend the traffic amongst the natives. Where the evil has not penetrated, there is still amongst the natives a natural dignity, and an abhorrence of the " waipero." But the traffic is a money-making game ; the making of money is the chief end of the Britisher's existence; the seller is backed up by the merchant; the merchant is backed up by a Church that worships wealth and position more than it does God, and the weakest have to go to the wall. The natives have frequently set their faces against the establishment of drinking dens in their midst. Experience has taught them that when once a native starts drinking intoxicants he becomos utterly demoralised, and, so tQ speak, dies in the gutter. We were led into this train of thought by reading a telegram which we publish in another column to-day, in whiGh it is stated that the natives of Wardell, a township in the Wellington district, have drawn up a set of rules and regulations for the suppression of the drink traffic and to prevent liquor from being brought into their settlements. What a commentary on our boasted Christian liberty, that our inconsistent insistence on the maintenance of a degrading evil should necessitate such a rebuff from a savage people.