THE EXAGGERATION OF PROHIBITION.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VI, Issue 269, 19 September 1895, Page 10

THE EXAGGERATION OF PROHIBITION.

The following letter which appeared in a Christchurch journal lately is well worthy of reproduction. It is from the pen of Pastor Birch, a well and popularly known clergyman in that bonny southern city: — Mr Isitt’s Facts. Sir, —The Rev. F. W. Isitt grossly exaggerates when, as “ a fact,” be states that sly-grog selling is “ carried on in over 100 Christchurch brothels.” This fact exists only in Mr Isitt’s brain. The number does not exceed 30. Instead of “700 prostitutes in this city,” as publicly stated at the Opera House “ facts ” meeting for men only, the actual number this week is 129, and this number includes the 40 elderly women for whom some of us are trying to provide a voluntary permanent infirmary home in Addington Gaol, a leading Prohibitionist (Mr Tom Taylor) being as yet the only one who opposes us in that godly desire. The number includes women who live respectably in lodgings —going to church occasionally —and obtain their living outside by the trade referred to. Including all these, the number is only 129, and in this respect Christchurch compares favourably with other cities. It is also a gross exaggeration to state that drink plays a leading part in wrecking so many women. The true fact is that 80 per cent, come from the domestic servant and factory class, who do not fall through drink, but through lonely human nature, which is deceived sometimes by a man who regards himself a gentleman, occasionally a J.P. of church-going respect ability, who vows that he will always care for her, or a young fellow who promises to be true and to marry her when he has the means. She falls. Virtuous society, whose wrong conditions cause her to sin,

cries “ Prostitute; let us avoid her ! ” God says, “ Poor child, come to me 1 ” Is she a prostitute in the sight of our Father ? At any rate, she is not in mine, and if the Rev. W. Isitt is anxious for a kindlier name for them,let it be “our Father s lost daughters,” or, if you like, “ the pastor s sisters.” The majority do not fall through drink, but because so many men have married the wrong mate, or are not always satisfied with their legal wife. Let it be remembered that the first biblical record of the social evil was of a highly respectable married man at a place at least 500 miles from the nearest hotel. It is also a gross exaggeration to say that this is a drunken city and our police force corrupt. The fact is, that of all the cities in Australasia, Christchurch is the least drunken. Fifty destitute men of the lowest class yesterday received a note each “to go to the devil or anywhere, so long as you clear out from Christchurch,” and during the day two of them had to be “run in” for drunkenness. Only two out of fifty such men ! Thank God ! lam glad to think that I have acted kindly to these poor, miserable, lonely brothers of mine. Twenty years ago, when the population was about half its present number, the arrests for drunkenness were twice as many as now. We are becoming a sober nation, and, as a rule, our young men are next door to being, as I am, a teetotaler. On the morning after the trial, I called on the landlord of the George street bar to urge him to close it, but he replied that he could not do so for a reason which, from his point of view, was justifiable, but he undertook to do everything in his power to keep within moral and national law. Since then I have visited that street almost every night, and have not seen anything for which I can blame him. I admit that there are several of our lost sisters in the immediate neighbourhood, but to say that every woman who goes to George Street for a jug of beer, or who walks through the street, or who is seen to stand and talk to anyone —that all these are prostitutes, is an invention which springs from the “ lather of lies.” The Rev. F. W. Isitt again justifies the conduct of so-called “four godly young men” in acting deceitfully on the Lord’s Day. He refers to the first hotel they visited (I believe the City), where it is admitted that they told a lie. Bui, sir, there was a second. Two or three of the said young men visited the Central Hotel and were asked, “ Are you travellers ? ” They replied, “Yes.” “Are you bona fide travellers ? ” They again replied, “ Yes,” whereupon, according to law, they were supplied with the whiskey demanded. Should not this case come before the magistrate ? Do not let us have ungloved justice for the publican and ministerial excuses for the tempting sinner. I have much more to say ; for one thing, that some of the socalled prostitutes have acted the part of the Good Samaritan to poor, wretched women who have been without liome, have paid for lodgings for strange women in the hour of maternal peril, and who, if I would let them, would eagerly help me with money in my efforts to rescue the fallen and cheer those who die. Were our Lord here, do you think sir, He might say to those who are so ready to condemn and call bad names, “ Verily, I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you.”— I am, etc., William Birch, Pastor.