CORRESPONDENCE

Southland Times, Issue 13284, 9 August 1895, Page 4

CORRESPONDENCE

[We do nob hold ourselves responsible for opinions expressed by our correspondents.] The Intolerance, Injustice . • ■ and Tyranny of Prohibition. • • ; ; . . +- TO THE EDITOR. Sib,—What a lovely prohibition land ' this will be, the best country, in the best of all possible worlds, as my old friend, Dr Pangloes, would say. What treasure of love (and affection the cousins, sisters and aunts of those kicked out of doors by the hobnailed boots of {prohibition will fondly cherish towards the kickers. What a picnic we shall have. *' What a deuce of a row ’’ there will be, as the naughty Presbyterian parrot said about Home (Rule. Of course John Bnll will turn the other cheek. He always does so. He is quite opposed to the eye for an eye or tooth for a tooth business. Its against his religious principles and every day convictions, and its quite safe to attack him in his own .castle. Ah, my friends ! Your contract is much bigger than you imagine. You have assumed, put on, the angelic virtue of temperance for the purpose of engendering, by coercion, all the evil f- passions that lie dormant in man. John Bull is bullet-proof against coercion, No nation or power has ever coerced him successfully for any length of time. If an angel from heaven were to attempt to compel him he would fail. You have about the same chance with him as the old lady had that tried to stop the Atlantic with her mop. The breed is the most enduring, the most strenuous, obdurate, and masterful of the race. Your only hope is in the enthusiasm of the women, so recently enfranchised, and your ability in shuffling the cards at the next general election. But the bulk of the women 1 will soon see that total prohibition is a sham, an impossibility, and desert you. You take them to be fools. How can you for a moment imagine that they would prefer their husbands or brothers to get their customary tipple from the sly grog shanty or the brothel? Your laws to prohibit the manufacture of alcohol are like ropes of sand, for ’ every one can make it. It will make itself if you let the fruit ferment. What you in your infinite wisdom must do, is to pass a law prohibiting fermentation and original Bin. Never since the world, began have educated men shown such inability to understand the limits of legislative action. The absurdity of legislating to close the mouths of the people don’t strike you; but what does, and gives you great pleasure, is the power that these unjust laws that enable you to interfere with your neighbours business, and meddle with private aflairs that should be sacred. Soon espionage will become a virtue and Paul Pry tPprohibi tion divinity. What if my little homely pleasure consists of my evening pipe, or mug of beer, or glass of toddy with my wife ? What business is it of yours ? “It’s against the law made and provided by the New Adam. We will fine you, and imprison you, and fight you as our Puritan fathers did in the days of old.” Yes, and if they heard you claim any relationship, or attempting to fight under their banner, there would be a danger of the Old Adam raising them from their graves to kick you for your impudence. Never was a greater libel perpetrated on a great name and people. The Puritan would rather have death than to dishonourably offer up on the altar his brother’s purse as a sin offering for the nation. Tie would be the last man to brazenly deny national responsibility for its own act and deed. He hated a lie worse than the devil. You 1 fight like a Puritan? Why they would laugh in their shrouds in derision at the absurdity of the thing. What is your concep-

tion of a fight? To scatter broadcast brazen mis-statements and roll ii the gutter of your Billingsgate all thosi that presume to differ with you. Puritan: never organised advanced women to trap thi female vote, nor did they soil the white rose of social purity to fight an election with o: buy up candidates with the prohibition voti to bring disgrace on the name, as the firs radicals that ever ratted. They would nol touch roll stffiung or the dirty caucus witl a forty foot pole. The only thing Puritanii about, you is the irresistible desire that im pels you to domineer over the thoughts and actions of your feUowman. It „ seems as il society were growing old, and had becomt infested by all the parasites under the sun. No sooner do you rid the earth of one pest than you have to take up arms against another who pops up as serenely as if he was a part of the economy ot nature. Its singular the persistence of this type. The crank,” like poverty, is always amongst ns. Fortunately they are not all as .destructive as our prohibition heroes of Sydeaham. How joyous they were at the destruction of hotel property there ; the bursting up time was a holiday for them, and they decked themselves out in all their finery as gay for the foast as blue ribbon could make them. Yes, my prohibition friends, you set the ball rolling; its a pretty big one now ; close on three millions of New Zealand

money withdrawn from industry — locked up instead of employing thousands that are tramping the streets. Confidence, as I have repeatedly told you, “is a plant of very slow growth.” The safe man will bur y his money. He has no faith in your gospel of violence, for he is afraid that it may be his turn next.

And now, in conclusion, I would fain refer you once more to one of the recorded experiences of the past. There wks once a place called Merrie England, inhabited by a joyous race that loved their dance and song, their beef and beer,and all went well until Heaven in its wroth, inundated the land with saints who were averse to the pomps and vanities of this wicked world. “No more cakes and ale” for John Bull, and the fight began. Again and again defeat followed defeat, only to make John, like the mastiff that bears his name, more determined. He took hold at last, never to let go again. The Restoration followed, and as a mad protest against coercion, immorality and drunkenness became fashionable among a people previously ordinarily decent and temperate, and the darkest page of the social life of the Mother Country was then written. Coercion debauched England then, and, as history repeats itself, we may confidently predict that prohibition and coercion will do the same in New Zealand. Oh ! my friends, “the dice of God are always loaded.”—l am, etc, John Bull. 7th Aug.

Perfection has been attained in the manU' facure of Ascot Tobacco.