THE NO-LICENSE QUESTION.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 11370, 1 September 1908, Page 7

THE NO-LICENSE QUESTION.

There, Ayas. considerable, variation of opinion ' ou the liquor question at the Waikato Archdeaconal Conference, now sitting at Cambridge. The Rev. A. S. Buckland said that fiv e years ago he felt tliat nothing would induce him. to vote for no-license, as he considered such. ;would bo an infringement of* the ''lights' of the subject. Liberty, however, did not consist merely in doing what we liked, but in being able to do what was right. The Chairman, (the Ven. Archdeacon Willis) said he had signed the manifesto from the Ministers' Association. The majority of people in the Dominion favored no-license, but the difficulty was to get the necessary three-fifths majority. One great phase of the subject was 'that of compensation. He had voted no-license last time, and would do so again. Mr Wells took up what he considered the moral aspect of the question. He I 'agreed that nobody questioned the evils I arising from the. 'sale and " consumption of strong drink, but that was not the point at issue. It was a case of a little knowledge being a -dangerous thing. Jdost, clergymen who spoke on the subject did not know what they were talking about. Mr Buckland wanted to be moral, and wanted the community to be moral, .but at the other fellow's cost. The Rev. F. W. Clarko considered it was time the Church "got off the fence. "' Too much had she hidden her light, and too long had she given an uncertain sound in this important question. The Rev. E. M. Cowic, M.A., said that while so many hotelkeepers wero honestly endeavoring to run their houses decently and well ho could not briu^g himself to vote for depriving them of their means of livelihood. Tlie Rev. Alex. Huon agreed that the liquor traffic wanted; controlling, but he had, as it were, broken on the rock of compensation, especially because the hotelkeepers were conducting a legalised business. He advocated State control and the inculcation of temperance principles among the rising generation. The Rev. H. A- Hawkins was not quite 6iire that prohibition would prove a success, but it would, at any rat.p. clear the air for something better. No vote waf taken on the question.