THE OKA.TO CONVENTION.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 11602, 17 August 1899, Page 3

THE OKA.TO CONVENTION.

TO THE EDITOU, Sir, — I was not able to attend the Prohibition Convention at Okato the Other night, so am not able to offer nn opinion on the point of tha telegram as between Mr McCullum and Rev. H. Mason, but, if statements, which I am told by several attendants were made, I must say I am surprised at an Anglican clergyman, hitherto credited with a love of truth and honour, tktiog cheek "by jowl with mischievous slanderers. Had I baen present micher tho black coat nor the white choker would have prevented my hurling the lie down tho speaker's throat, in spite of the presence of the "man in blue,' 1 with whom the conveners of the meeting had seen fit to protect themselves, while they thrust their tie insinuations and false i«Ucs in f rone of our children, both male and female. I particularly allude to a remark made, as reported to me, "That the lads engaged in cow spanking at Warea no sooner obtained thair monthly cheques than they saddled their horses and spent their money in drink at Okato." Such a statement, if mule, contains in itself its refutation, for no lad haviug been drunk, as implied, over n'ght would be fit to sit undrr his cows in the morning. I have had to do with cow spankers for rmny years; my sons and daughter?, and now my grandsons and granddaughters, are of that profession; I am in the daily iubit of meeting these lads at our factory, and I have never seen the slightest sigp of such drunkenness haviog been possible. The latfs in New Zaaland have their faults, but I mu3t protest against these new- chum parsons, fresh from the back slum 3 of the Old Country, trying to.prove cur children guilty of vices which do not exist. Argument with these 'pecu iirpeople" U of none avail; the lie proved at Eithsm crop 3 up next day at K*ponga; the platitude exposed at iDglewood is produced at once in New Plymouth, without shame, without disguise. In my early youth I heaid the great temperance orator Gough; the meetings now-a-days are tinply a rehash of his old jams and subterfuges, adapted to the new idea of Prohibition, which in his most infatuated moments he never dreamed of advocating. It is no U3O meetiug these people on the platform, it is simply time wasted, but something must be done to prevent the effect their utterances, ucconlndicted, are likely to have on impressionable youth now grow-* ing into adu't age. I particularly otjact to the notion which these people Btrive to drive into their immature hearers that thtir parents and ancestors, who indulged in grateful accaptanoe of one of the be^t and greatest of God'i gifts, mu3t; inevitably now or in future suffer the torments of hell This idea instilled into the youthful miad by these black-coated gentry, whose real value these children have no knowledge to estimite, must destroy in a great measure that home influence, which u&fonuaately is found even now to be weakenjng in our midst. These "peculiar people" advance a statement, which, for want of refutation, is taken as a fact;. A bogus telegram is handed to a meeting, and none can refute it; again a statement is made, as at Okato, backed even by tLe rev. convert's English experience, "that 80 per cent, of crime is either directly or indirectly caused by drink." Has it never occurred to these people that drink is not the cause, but a divine palliative, to render the remorse caused by crime more endurable ? lastead of being the cause, the desire to drink is the effect of wrong doing, and the efforts of the Prohibitionists to reduce crime by prohibition are as tffi a ious as a farmer's endeavours to samp out anthrax by giving hi? dead cows to his pigs. If crime is to be reduced, crime i.self must be found and grappled with. Our black coated friends daie not tackle the great source of e\ii amongst us. I have known in my time ia New Zealand 'a large number of these gentlemen who now pese a3 advocates of prohibition ; at least from 50 to 100 have been more or less my personal friends and acquaintances. Allo-ving, as they say, driuk to be ihe fearful thing thay represent and to produce such dire results, the- percentage of criminals to the coinmanity of moderate drinkers is very small indeed. We are told ihe whole population ij wi ksd and evil, but I would like to let our young people kuow of sin amongst the total ab?tainer3, which to my knowledge and in my experience has occurred amongst my cleiical friends. Allowing me to have met, say 100 of these, I can give six absolutely incontrovertible scandals which hava occurred in churches amongst these 100 people — that is six per cent. I should be sorry to revive old trouble?, but when these people pose asimoiaculate, owing to cold water, strong and firm efforts may havo to be taken to refute their posfVon. Mr Ma on is soiry Church mattera should be brought ioto this matter. I agree .with him ; it is not a matter of church, but my six examples would embrace six different see's. '1 heae erringi of my clerical friends have, iv my opinion, done more harm, produced more crime, and induced more drink than all hotels in New ZeaUnd ; and 'these have occurred only within my own limited range of experience. Verily, when these men atand up to revile their fellows-creatures they should romember their Master told those who were without crime to "cast the fi-st stone." I have lived in New Z^alaud many years ; I üm responsible for many children and grandchildren ; I adiniro its initituliona, its freedom, its soil, iis aobriuty ; I love the country for its beauties and fertility ; but my blood boilh when I hear these new arrivals, fro:h from the slums o£ the Old Country, laying down tbo law as to our food and drink, aui th^ manner in which wq shall conduct ours^lvo-s and who mount tha [jhtform itucl roll off thuir liss nud intjuun'lfiiM a« though there were mitber (jo 1 to j;uni h nor Hell to recoivo them. When in His own good tiaia Hoshill see fit to stop th'n course of wickedness, which for nomo good purpose of His own lij now allows to proceed, " Not ye, cot butthat offences mu3t come, but woe be to him through whom they come."— l am, &c, JJE.