CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 9953, 14 March 1894, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

♦ — [We are uot responsible for the opinions ex pressed by correspoudeute. Tho writer's name, as a guarantee of good faith, uiubt bo enclosed in the letter.] [ADVERTISEMENT.] A CHALLENGE. TO TBS EDITOR. Sir, — I understand from one who was present at the " Temperance " address in the Wesleyan chapel on Sunday night last that the pastor of that congregation, during the course of his lecture, gave utterance to the following statement— not, perhaps, in the exact words but in effect: — 1 That no hotelkeeper could be respectable. 2 That they draw the last drop of blood from a man; and 3 After putting their hands in his pockets and robbing him of his last shilling, kick him out in tho street. With regard to the first statement, I think lam justified in saying that our hotelkeepers, io the matter of respectability, will compare favorably with any other section of the community, and that their houses are well and orderly conducted. This is not my own opinion; I have heard it endorsed by scores of visitors t« the place, and I am confident it is an opinion which is shared by every unbiassed person. Statement No. 2, is almost too silly and absurd to notice ; it is one of those fanatical shrieks worthy of the professional' Prohibitionist who makes a. living out of the business, and it displays but little Cluistian charity, coming from a Minister of the Gospel. The third statement is somewhat of a more serious character, and cannot be treated so slightly. When a respoctable body of men are accused in a wholesale manner,- not only of blood-sucking, but of deliberately robbing drunken men, I think in a spirit of fair play they have a right to demand from the accuser his authority for making such a serious accusation. I, therefore, on behalf of the Trade, respectfully call upon tho rev. gentleman to substantiate the charge, or withdraw the -statement. — I am, &c, ' Jas. Paul.