LIQUOR IN THE KING COUNTRY.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17222, 4 October 1927, Page 9

LIQUOR IN THE KING COUNTRY.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—ln your issue of Saturday the views of the Bishop of Waikato on this subject are at last given to the pubLic: hut., like other defenders of the liquor trade, he utterly fails to justify the breach of faith with the Maoris. That the Government has failed, or neglected, to enforce the law and therefore made its own proclamation null and void is no argument whatever, except to prove to the Maori that where money interests are at stake the word of the white man is worth nothing. His Lordship says, “Of course one can see perfectly well what lies behind any opposition to the change which I have suggested; 1 am afraid that it comes from no desire to be fair to the people of tiie King Country or from any real love of the Maoris, but from an exaggerated regard for the fetish of prohibition.” Ifis,. Lordship has only been five minutes in this country, as the saying is, and knows nothing of the matter except by hearsay; consequently to those of us who are not prohibitionists, but do care for the Maori and who also believe in honouring agreements, the comments of the Bishop savour of bad taste, to say the least. Ilis Lordship gives five grounds for his opposition to temperance. He says:— 1. It is contrary to the teachings of St. Paul (Col. 2, 20 to 23).—His Lordship must he hard put to it when he has to twist these verses into a defence of the liquor traffic.

2. It is Manichean in tendency and I Manicheism was a heresy condemned I by the church in the third century.— I By which church may 1 ask?- I was under the impression that Ilis Lordship was an adherent of a Reformed Protestant Church, which was not thought of in the third century, and if he is going to quote some obscure doctrine or teaching of the third century in support of his argument for liquor, how does he reconcile this with his statement that “things have changed in the 'j King Country now, etc,” (implying that the agreement with the Maori should he ignored as it is out of date). 3 & 4. It is unmoral, and except in the most extreme cases, such as doing harm to other people, etc.”—Does the Bishop mean to contend that it is unmoral to oppose putting temptation to drunkenness and crime before our fellow man, or will he maintain that making easy the procuring of liquor by natives is good for them? His statement that insobriety is decreasing in England lias no hearing on the matter, and, even if true, no credit is due to the liquor trade. 5. “No State has the right to frame laws which do not commend themselves to the good, that is, the moral sense of the community, etc.” —“Given a clean-cut issue it may vet he shown that prohibition does commend itself to New Zealand. We have a few laws on the Statute Book now that quite a number of people think no good and unmoral—the Military Service Act, for instance; yet the Bishop’s argument would not save them from gaol if they refuse to obey it. The bishops and clergy are always bewailing the fact that the great mass of the people are indifferent to the church, especially Ihe workers. Is it any wonder when we find the heads of the churches are only concerned about the interests of brewers, distillers, and other vested interests? His Lordship has twisted a statement of St. Paul to uphold a trade that cannot claim one single act I hat tended to the uplift of humanity. May I conclude by reminding Ilis Lordship that one, greater than St. Paul, bids us “not to cause another to stumble.”—l am, etc., KAUMATUA.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—One reads with regret that the Bishop of Waikato speaks of prohibition as a “fetish." lie will remember that the apostle Paul was described as mad by men who were equally as well read as the Bishop; now this same “madness” has spread to the ends of the earth. We look forward to the day when the “fetish" will do likewise. When Bis Lordship the Bishop quotes Scripture to prove his contention, he opens a door that may take a lot of shutting. lie knows where to find certain texts; does he know where this one is? “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, whosoever consumes thereof is not wise." If sobriety is gaining ground, as (tie Bishop says it, is, then the people convicted last year in this Dominion of drunkenness must have been wrongly convicted.—l am, etc., MELVILLE.