TEMPERANCE

Southland Times, Issue 19099, 17 November 1923, Page 5

TEMPERANCE

RESOLUTION BY METHODIST SYNOD.

At yesterday’s meeting of the OtagoSouthland Methodist Synod, the following resolution regarding temperance was passed: “Whereas intoxicating beverages are admitted to be destructive to man’s moral and intellectual faculties, and have been openly condemned by the President of the British Medical Association as agents of death and loathsome disease, this Synod urges the Ministers and members of the Methodist Church to continue with unremitting zeal the struggle for the abolition of the liquor traffic in New Zealand. “Whereas the people have on three occasions by a majority of votes condemned the continuance of the liquor traffic, and “Whereas the issue of State Purchase and Control of the liquor traffic has twice failed to secure less than six per cent, of votes, and “Whereas the proposed substitution of ‘Corporate Control’ in place of State Purchase on the ballot paper involves the making of the Government an active partner in the liquor traffic, and will in any event prevent a clear expression of the people’s will as between Prohibition and Continuance. “Therefore this Synod respectfully urges the Government to decline any partnership in a traffic internationally recognised as economically, socially and morally injurious, and to afford the people of this Dominion a fair opportunity of voting on the clear-cut issue of Prohibition and Continuance. “The Synod further records its emphatic protest against the unworthy efforts made by interested parties to induce the Government to discard dishonourably the solemn pact made in 1884, whereby it was agreed that no licenses should be granted in the King Country, and begs the Government to protect the Maori race by continuing the observance of the covenant then made. “The Synod further places on record its opinion that the expressed will of the people being emphatically against the continuance of the liquor traffic, any legislation increasing facilities for drinking or the expansion of the liquor traffic will constitute a betrayal of the people’s trust.”