THE PROHIBITION QUESTION.

Colonist, Volume LXI, Issue 15040, 7 April 1919, Page 5

THE PROHIBITION QUESTION.

A PASTORAL BY ARCHBISHOP REDWOOD.

A NOTABLE PRONOUNCEMENT.

The following is the full text of a Pastoral issued by Archbishop Redwood S?fenr cad / estf day a* all Roman

".-The clergy and x>eople of this Axch- &**??/ <Je other Diocese?^ ?w Ze# aad naturally look to their tae^argue^at wine^alcoholie drinks) is an evil m itself, then alsolute Prohibition, even for Sacramental purposes should- emphatically follow; but this 3?2S J^Sf 6?8 responsibility from the agent to the instrument, and so destroys m6rahty; moreover, it is contrary to Scripture and the emphatic teaching and example of Christ X ttrrTc^-^ i* instituting the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, made it part of the essential matter It they argue that wine, or alcoholic drink, is not an evil in itself, then regulation of its traffic is surely the moral course to adopt. But. if Prohibition- is urged on account of the misuse which some make of it. tnen, to be-morally consistent, the same people should demand that because the sexual instinct is abused by some to the extreme of impurity therefore> all union of the sexes should be, forbidden. On the same principle minting the: theatre, dancinsr. should be prohibited. All this would of course, be absurd, and is almost blasohemy against marriage, which is a holy ordinance of God and is honoured' by all men. The position of the Prohibitionist is accordingly against 100-io and common sense. Inform is needed—not Prohibition —reform wise and moderate and patient m the light of experience, education and true morality in the interests of the_ great Jjody of the public, and especially of moderate men who constitute the majority of the people. To brand iNew Zealanders, who are'generally a, sober community as a drink-sodden people, demanding drastic legislation ISu a i and monstrous calumny. The whole scheme of National Prohibition is a great step backward; it would be an odious and inauisitorial tyranny foreign to -the basic principle and spirit of British Law. As the Archbishops, last October, aptly stated in their important pronouncement, "We view with misgiving and alarm the crude proposals of those Prohibitionists who demand drastic legislation which would be an. unwarrantable infringement on the reasonable liberty of the mass of the people: which would most probably be, inefficacious for the purpose in view, and which, in the end. would produce more evil than it would? remove." • Prohibition is indeed fatal to Liberty, because it.involves a serious outrage against the natural rights and liberties of individuals and contemptuously disregards^ the claims of dissenting minorities. It is also fatal to Temperance, though not a few sophistically confound Temperance with Prohibition. Temperance is a growth, like all morai laws, in the individual and the community. Prohibition proposes to establish Temperance according to the Criminal Code. Temperance is positive and appeals to man's sense of selfcontrol, to bis reason and conscience. Prohibition is, negative, and appeals to the sense of fear, to pains and penalties, and utterly icmores man's habits •?d education. Temperance is the development of man's righteousness and self-control. "Prohibition is the reduction of jman to a position, of compulsory national stotal .abstinence by the Criminal Law: Temperance is the heritage and blessing of a free people. Prohibition is the yoke which a country constructs itself when it confesses its inability to self-«oniir6l. and-from which it will take long years to free itself: Temperance is the' badge of self-respect and orderliness. Prohibition is the symbol for hypocrisy and deception. All the secret encouragement to sly drinking, the utter lack of control, the absence of all authority. the vile decoctions served, are sure to generate _ a lo\»" moral atmosphere of great mischief. And such places of sly drinking greatly appeal to the young. Once let a young man become contaminated by, the moral tone of the "sly grogs," he will be damaged morally, if not utterly ruined. Prohibition will undoubtedly "-enerate lawlessness. Its extreme character, its far-reaching measures, its enormous penalties, stamp it as a/ grinding despotism—the fruitful parent of disorder. Prohibition is as despotic as any law of the worst despot. It utterly disregards and tramples under foot tho undoubted rights of minorities, whom it grossly insults by the way it flaunts their wishes and destroys their privileges. TEe minority tinder it would obey, or suffer outrageous penalties. "Wherever it prevails it is monstrous in- every way. and grossly insulting- to the intelligence of the large minority. If it is carried in New Zealand we may expect that shortly the land will be filled intk iens, all of whiqh will beschools evasion, lawlessness, and. deception. One extreme begets another. Prohibition would plunge us into a course of folly bringing turmoil into, the politics of the country, perjury and evasion into the courtß, and deception into the peopio. Let it not be argued that "sly grog would become an impossibility when throughout the whole Dominion there would be no liquor to be ruocured. And what could prevent the manufacture of sly gros: in the country and its -troduction by a widespread system r,f smuggling? But in any case this plea' is no excuse for its inherent and rampant tyranny. In a recent publication regarded as authoritative by the No-License Party these words occur: "I recollect on'one ■.rc-asion, in conversation, one of the brewers said to a Prohibitionist, I ha,te the drunkard as much as you. • ! .-., Prohibitionist replied: 'That remark defines the.difference between us. You hate the drunkard. I, hate the ! drunkard-maker. 5 " It is this very; I -xternation in teadnr-pc which is sure i to add to the list of the drunken. Nay, 'H, destroys all morality. This teaching ™uld render morality imn^sible. Anarchy and lawlessness would .be ranWfc.- "I bate the . drunkardmaker" In terms of "logic, he hates ithe hotelkeeper who sells wine, ta& ■' nrraan who serves it, the comrocrnal 1 traveller who represents wholesale houses which stock wine. A step fur-■tVf-he would hate the wine-grower* labourer in the vineyard, and trie r-ar^-r who carries the wine and so on. T~i lar«'e drapery establishments certain . persons- practise shop-lifting. T>-»hibitinniPt tpacVine would exonerate tkem and blame the drapnrs. "I» ,ot the -tlrirt th^ef-maber » ■■^Dihraandiiv.htß. To the responi ■ H^Htv fro'": 1 !^-' "rrn who drinks to excess to otlinr ror.ws Is-to encourage■r . "-T.pu.tuy Tjitbi the drunken, and stilT :'..T»iore' is this wrousht by absolutely i stopping the supply, not only to tho r','-fo>w lawles&. but +o the whole comj inuhity. This remedy is fatal to I morals. It is fatal to set up a comj pulsory and ascetic total absftaneniee

society for the cowls' and to enforce its rules -by a drastic. Criminal Code. A. /true educational development; un-, doubtedly' means that the whole* of ,man's attributes are to be brought into true harmony: - Hero lies the worth of 'the individual and the true ~reatness oE the State. A."mere negation such as Prohibition would never accomplish this; in fact, a greater violation of its principles can hardly be conceived.

This National Prohibition craze is mainly the' work of a handful of fanatics, while some honest people, •oven some Catholics, owing,>fco what they have.' suffered from drunken fathers or mothers,,husbands or wives, .relatives or friends, put sentiment before reason and yield to tho temptation of resorting to a. remedy \vorse than the disease. But let Catholics and all good Christians bo timely warned. We know that there are in the ranks of the Prohibitionists, though not perhaps, amongst the present Readers in this country, bitter enemies of tho Catholic I Church and of tho Mass. There ii a \ real danger that these people would j later on try here, as they have dono | at least one important State of | America, to render the Holy Sacrifice of tho Mass impossible. Listen to ivhat one of their leaders in the united states has said. Sidney Catts, Governor of the State of Florida, at the annual convention of the Anti-Saloon League held in Washington as recently as December, 1917. made the following declaration: "Liquor may not do imported into tho State of Florida (after I get through with the Prohibition measure and after the Bill has been passed by the people) for any purpose whatsoever, and the man who needs liquor for his religion had better prepare to take his religion out of Florida." But I shall be told that we run no danger in New Zealand, as we have the assiu-ance of the leaders of the NoLicense League, together with the Government, that, satisfactory regulations will be made'to allow wine to be procured for Sacramental purposes. lam ■not at all convinced that these regulations will be satisfactory. First of all,, what -are they? Nobody has seen them, and they are not to be made, I j understand, Until after the poll is j taken. Is it reasonable to ask Catho- j lies to vote for National Prohibition on j the strength of regulations .not yet: made, and about which we, know j nothing—whether they will be satisfactory or otherwise? But even though the present Prohibition leaders and the present Government may be perfectly sincere in their avowed purpose to make regulations that will be entirely satisfactory, what guarantee have we that in a few years, once National- Prohibition is the law of the land, other Prohibition leaders and another Government—on the ground, say, that the exemptions are being a.bused —may not insert an amendment, in the Ac*t^doing away with all exemp-. tions, even /for the Mass, or the regulations in such fashion as to. practically prevent the celebration ofthe Holy Sacrifice?. We have had too; much experience of recent "rush" legislation on the part of our Parliament hot to fear similar "rush" legis-; lation in Tegard to Sacramental wine, especially, I repeat, as the No-License movement numbers amongst its most prominent advocates men who publicly denounce the Mass as f*an~uncnristian superstition," and make no secret of their determination, if they had the power, to prevent its celebration in ■New Zealand. ,

I consider, therefore, that I would be .failing in my duty did I not warn our people of the dangerous possibilities that are before them. Is the great Catholic Church, in this pretended free land, to depend for the exercise of a natural and divine right on any fallible and fallacious Government or set of politicians? Such a thing is an insult, an outrage, and an indignity. It implies a prying and inquisitorial interference with every altar and every i priest in the Dominion. I call, therefore, on all Catholics in the Dominion! to vote dead against National Prohibi-| tion, as they value common sense, j liberty, and the sacred claims of their Holy Faith. Let: them band with the | best men in the Dominion, the majority j of good and moderate men, to stamp j out this noxious thing, National Pro- j hibition, for ever. Let such inquisi-' torial and grinding tyranny never curse this free land. The Catholic who votes j for National Prohibition in the present condition of this Dominion—whatever J other exceptional case might he conceived in other countries to make ProV hibition tolerable—is true neither to iiis common sense nor his love of freedom, nor his loyalty to his Holy Religion. Let him cast his vote patriotically and religiously against it, in this and every other election. Let him not become the slave of a false system inspired by narrow-mindedness and fanaticism. (Signed) X FRANCIS REDWOOD, S.M. 'Archbishop of Wellington and Metropolitan.*