OUR VICTORIAN LETTER (From Our Own Correspondent.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2572, 1 July 1903, Page 12

OUR VICTORIAN LETTER (From Our Own Correspondent.)

pulpit criticism of Mr Kingston's administrative methods; and I think tho Age is right. Not that the Age's defence of Mr Kingston is right, but the justice of h s methods is a debatable question, and Dr Marshall had much b&tter have left it alone Another clergyman is in hot water with the press. Tnis is the Rev. Pearce Carry, who reooatly came frcm London as minister of tho Collins Street Baptist Church. The Argua had published a strong leader against the Prohibition pa.rty, who have been i making a etir, and Mr Carey addressed a I brief letter to the editor expressing his pain I and surprise to find suoh a journal supporting the publican. Tlie Argus pubL'shod tho letter with a footnote characterising Mr Carey's curt expression of opinion as "presumption " Then Mr Carey explained that he had written " Prh ate" en his envelope, and was amazed when he saw the letter in print. Tlieireiupan another footnote was appended, characterising Mr Carey'e actlou in writing a privaite admonition to the ed.iitoi as even "greater presumption" than if h& had written for publication. Mr Carey is "sorry he spoke." The teni'pwanoa demonstration was organised by the Victorian Alliance. The principal speakers were Mv W. H. Judkiiis, ' ex-seoretary of the New Zea'-and Alliance, and bhe Revs. C. H. Bradbury and J. Hosking, aleo formerly of your colony. It is needless to repeat their arguments. The Argus attacked them quite nerceJy next morning, declaring that New Zealand was " hurrying bLmdfold to extremes in the hands of teetotal fanatics," that New Zealaiidori) were not allowed " the exercise of personal judgment and self-restraint," that it was proposed to transform "adult citizens into senfs or children." There is no public opinion behind the prohibition movement in Australia — at j leaat not yet. But there is unquestionably room for a big reform in the liquor trade of the big cities like Melbourne and Sydney. , The smaller hotels in the bye-streets and ! the suburbs are drinkmg-shops pure and 1 simple ; many of them very low : and many ] of them kept by women — married, single, and widows. In many places they exist upon the custom of the very lowest classes, and it would be a blessing to the commu--nity if they could be wiped out. They are I often kept by persons who have failed in other walks of hf&, and who try a hotel as j a last report. j We have lost a truly grand old man iv Dr Morrison, the principal^ of the Scotch j College, who died suddenly but painlessly , while sitting in his chair on a Sunday even- } ing. Singularly enough, his brother, who was principal of Geelong College, died in ' an •exactly iimilar way a"bout five years b?fore. Tho Scotch College in Melbourne is the seo-ondary school of the Presbyterian Church. It was "'let out," so to speak, to ■ Dr Morrison, who handed over onp-fifth of | the gross proceeds to the Presbyterian As- | sembly. He had had thousands of ooys through his Tiand-s, and was warmly respeotod and^ indeed loved — an upright, Godfearing, sane-minded Scotchman. Another of Melbourne's " grand old men" has been before the public in Mr E. G. Fitzgibbon, who has been re-elected chairman of the Metropolitan Board of Work", though he has re-ached his eightieth year. He was town clerk of Melbourne for 30 odd years. In a sketch of his life it is stated that he never went to school, but picked up all his learning from books and association with men of culture in hi 3 youthful days. It will interest New Zealandere to know that he was a cou-un of the late Mr Girthrie, editor of the Christchurch Prcs*. At a dinner which was given to him in the Town Hall Mi Fitzgibbon related how he was guided by a Higher Power to abandon the town clerkship and accept the Board of Works chairmanship He said : " Speaking to them solemnly and without desire to parade any religious feeling, he was I so racked with doubt that lie did specially and reverently what he did every morning of his life, aaked God for guidance. And, a? distinctly as ho was speaking to them then, it came into hia mind that if he went to church that day he would get his answer. He went in the hone that somewhere amongst the psalms ot lessons he would get direction, but none came. The preacher that morning was a man he had I never 6een before or sinee — and neither could have had the other in mind. The text was the one word ' Watch,' and it seemed to him suddenly that the preacher changed his line of argument, pointed out that what was true in the spiritual would al-so apply bo worldly affairs; that any day a door might suddenly open to them, which it was their duty to pass through ; that during long year 3 they might have been building up patiently the qualifications for i some special poat, yet without thought of 1