GAMBLING, WOMEN'S' INFLUENCE AND DRINK.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11598, 5 December 1899, Page 7

GAMBLING, WOMEN'S' INFLUENCE AND DRINK.

God, we are told, compassionates all ■human1 weaknesses; but the pious people in the world live by tf. '

TO THE EDITOR,

Sir,—l have been waiting patiently for some months,to see if someone would answer any of my three letters on Gambling Women s Influence, and Drink. ._- By those letters I wished to open up a vast held for argument. I wished to remove certain one-sided and narrow impressions created by faddists on the prohibition side. I have no objection to a faddist, so long as he,6r she believing live up to that particular fad. -. But when it is carried to extremes, when it is forced upon others whether they believe in it 01 no, when they are told that they must accept, if not they will be forced to accept then the freedom and liberty of the British subject is besieged, and it behoves us to fight for our liberty. These thoughts, therefore, prompt me again to ask, Am I wrong in stat- *■%— '. " ■ ■•■■'•■■.

.- • (1) That "gambling," and not "drink," is tho. primary cause of the poverty and wretchedness of New Zealand wherever it does .exist; ■■ ■ ■ . . , • " (2) Where drink is the cause it'is due to the want of home influence—the neglect of their homes by women,—for it is the woman's work to make the house, a home; .(3) That drink i 3 not an evil in itself, but, from some cause or reason as above, it is U3ed 'unlawfully and becomes an evil? : ; ■ But no evil thus adopted can be eradicated by law; it can^only be checked/ and habits changed by moral persuasion. Habits must be changed, but who is willing to undertake the task. We look to the church; . '" ? His Lordship Bishop Wallis, of Wellington,; says:-," Of all sins, .gambling and immoralityare the worst—not drink." His Lordship evidently sees, with deep regret, that the influence of the church' is sadly, but 'surely, slipping away, because the clergy are trying their.utmost to make people religious .through their worst feelings, instead of their best; through their fears, and calculations of risk and punishment, instead of through their gratitude and affections. Even with, our Sunday schools, the attendance is meagre—very meagre,—and will in a few years, have ceased to exist, because the niode of conduct is wrong. : The weary way in which the foundations of moral culture is being proceeded with i^ plainly seen by the little ones who attend. The interest is notK there; and,: their discernment vis quick. How came this state of lungs to exist? The, first and most impor-tanfc-.cause is the absence of , the Bible from our State schools., Our clergy, instead of attending to all matters of religion for'which they are-_ especially fitted, deliberately neglected their work, sat mute, and allowed our birtiinght to be taken from us, while they paid more attention to the debts incurred Iby their churches by getting up bazaars/art unions, and lecturing on prohibition, etc. In fact, hour by. hour the clergy,, are having to : face the fact that their power is no more, and they even find that they have a.difficulty to fill their cnurches unless they advertise some special preacher who will intone the service some special gentlemen or lady to sing the anthem, altar especially decorated, etc clearly proving that the church and stage .have joined forces. During the week, instead S™t Ti -f d /? m? into nll' the Wfous haunte of life, this duty is-delegated to the Salvation Army, while they (the clergy) *o in for other amusements. The clergy, hare no need to be-idle or encourage idleness; no need to let the power they possess slip from them, for they have, individually and collectively, a duty to perform:, to. cultivate the mind, to purify faith, and obliterate superstition from the face of religion—in other words to remove the vermin from the garden of God. To do this Hhey should- unite and clamour for the restoration of the Biblo in our State schools, so that the children can be taiight reverence, which is another word and all to God, for which the rising generation are like infants crying in the night." For what/ Light. They, must also know:as educators that the disposition of these: children wants attending to-training, both mind and body made sound and sweet from he^d hoct-l- I 5 °lean 1 mind is '* wholesome body; teach them self-respect. All tins can c done by tho influence of the church-not by ranting at. street corners or the Octagon on prohibition. These very men lose their' power, their). self-resr>ect, by leaving theh own work (for which "they are paid, Id S handsomely ..by their respective congregations) to folow and be at the beck and call PvtTl fo^f- ,A« "^rfs.theproUßiS thrir 1 v f k tUem t0 member .what UlrcH es .shouM tcacll them—Unit the smallest perfect achievement done in mercy and charity is nobler, more profitableTand weveTf aS tTying tO lesislate to-rfh, prevent, and avenge. . Prohibition party are like the various denominations: they clamour, ." I am the perfect way: all e I SB is to perdition.™ To such people justice is foreign, because a« H,ri 7Zl\! 0Z th6y ""* / he- -nTlividu enas at the expense of everyone else; and the more you dive into their motiv e s the more do you perceive that life's a mask t mere mockery, and each one no SS ™es a diploma to feed upon the others. Why therefore, do the clergy rant on-prohibit^

Britisher

'PROHIBITION SLANDERS. I observe from the columns of the evening daily paper that the Dunedin tailoreda™ resenting the imputation made aganst their mittee oi the so-called Church Council' I hear also that the wholesale slander uttered against shop and workshop girls has Riven such grave offence that until its wi £ drawn or apologised for large number o/tho girls have resolved,to absent themselves and their threepenny pj cces f rom Sund ,™£ S 16 laUer circumstancri tnem to their sober spnwa Tt ;, i- i . thing.for a so-cn.Ued Xu4h SS r % H Tg? EeC- li°n Of by the majority of their number are'"tomnted to supplement their earnings by other Sl' and it will be a long period before Dunedin Eiop and workroom girls are likely to f™ it!. An aggressive church movement that takes for granted that the world is worse than it really „ and deab out slander and vitupeni lion on all hands, is calculated, to repel rather than attract, adherents, and this is * penence that apparently lies in the path of the recently-formed Churcli Council The

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