MR DAY'S REMARKS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14302, 20 September 1910, Page 2

MR DAY'S REMARKS.

To the Editor of the "Timaru Herald." Sir.—lt is with feelings of anything lnit- satisfaction that I crave the liberty of your valuable space to remind the Rpv. Thomas Stinson. M.A.., i'reshytenan minister in this town, of hi? obvious shortcomings. f l he abuse that lip has soph fit to level at our most worthy Magistrate, Mr V. G. Day, apprals to me ns unpardonable. As however, an. ardent advocate of prohibition, though withal i.i a position that requires of me the display of greater modesty than that of the reverend gentleman, I cannot permit his ivfu'ctions to puss without >o j comment.

1 i:c:•(! not animadvert upon the refl'vtii'.'.s i:.;nio by the reverend goitlem;i!i soiue time ago in your paper, the intemperate nature of which je-crded l;is entire incapability to judgo -if the very thing up.>ll which he would i rs.'.ch to our M viz., the nos.s of intemperate utterances. 11l th.-.i. letter file reverend geurjimju WH.-it to far as to insinuate that Mr l>.w v, as unfit to sit 0:1 the magisterial bench, because of what? Forsooth, uocause Mr Day saw tic to express an opinion to the effect that a certain unfortunate woman would meet with as many, if not more temptations in a certain no-license district than in Timaru. And sir. let me emphasise the iact that our worthy magistrate was but speaking the absolute truth, from an experience that anyone might well envy, that siri followeth man and woman everywhere, and there he no end to it. Mr Day lias all his life been dealing with that unfortunate class upon whom the sin ol' man lies heavily, and who. sir. is better fitted to speak witii authority on the question ( >f temptation in the Ashburtou district than the man who woeklv presides over its Court sittings, and who personally inspects overv certificate _of 1 if|nor sent into that district ? Surely sir. I appeal to you. thai the man least fitted to compete with this magistrate in the of the exprr—>i. ol correct opinion on this subject. is su<-h a man as the I?ev. Thomas Stiii-oii. who' preaches weekly in his particular church, visits humbly his parishioner*. but who, [ dare sn.v. does not traverse the Ashburtnn district. or ■enter its Court, once in the course of twelve months.

If rliv success uf prohibition were I necessarily dependant upon the utter-an-es of pardons of this type, I would 1 throw it up to-morrow. Hut, .sir, I j am satisfied that it is a. God-favoured , cause. and that displays of ani--1 niosity by parsons or other ovcr-zeal- < us advocates of the enu«f> will neither ! hinder or forward it. Let me counsel I the Rev. Stinson to further the cause of mar. and Christianity by work, and 1 cense malicious utterances against all men, whether, 'ike Mr Day, they seek to speak the truth, or whether thev :■ re selfish suckers of the vitality of the r raca. Let rue repeat, sir. "that Mr Day's vie v.- is quite correct." For such mi unfortunate woman as she who was before tho Court, there is as great temptation ni Ashburton fit present, as there is in Timaru. Moreover, sir, although a probitionist, I am not one who poriits to Ashburtnn as an indication of the success of the no-license cause. So long as licensing districts surround Ashburton, and liouor can be poured into it . Ashburton will never feel the benefits of no-license. But the time will come when these other districts too, arid New Zealand a3 ta whole, will live under t-lie no-license banner, and then, sir, it will b? time to speak of the benefits of prohibition. Meanwhile. let us be content to work quietly and well, not troubling where there is no prohibition, but scek : ng t> destroy the evil of drink for its "evil alone. Men and women care not so much about success elsewheiv. as about the want- of it here, in Timaui. ' In conclusion, sir. permit me to ask the Rev. Thomas Stinson to take to liearfc the sermon delivered by bis brother Presbyterian minister in Chalmers Church on Sunday evening: "Thefre is always something wrong about a creed that has a great flare and trnmpet about it . . . The greatest forces in the world are the silent. dynamic forces The power from on high is a great dynamic force, without which man is a weakling, serving no good purpose in this world, but merely existing not living." If Mr Stinson will turn to his Creator and seek that power to enable him to work with that silent dynamic force, he wili do a hundredfold more good to tho cause of prohibition than he is likely to do by his intemperate press writings. The en us" of God is wit hout animosity, and Mr Stinson has fallen signally short of his lofty calling by his displays of animosity,' which, whether the object of it were deserving o- otherwise, was wholly un-Clirist-ian-like. —I am. etc., "PROHIBITIONIST."