THE HOLIDAYS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VI, Issue 282, 19 December 1895, Page 13

THE HOLIDAYS.

Of all times in the year when we wish to be convivial, and the toast “ here’s health ” is an open sesame to almost every man’s heart, the “ Christmas season ” is the most prominent one ; and yet at the present time our prohibitionist friends are redoubling their efforts to close the better class of publichouses, and urging the public to an access of strictness in the administration of the licensing laws on a principle of their own —somewhat different to the ordinary interpretation of the term. There are times when a certain amount of relaxation is necessary, when the strings having been drawn too tightly, need a relapse to fit them for future use. This our prohibitionist friends would deny, and insist upon a hypothetical tautness that neither nature nor art will stand without breaking. It is strange that the leaders of the Prohibition Party in New Zealand should be clergymen, paid to act as exponents of the Christian religion, and vet by their every act, and by their daily life, show a lack of the sentiments they are supposed to preach to the public. It is not “ Peace on earth, goodwill to men ” that we get from them, but “ pay me so much for travelling expenses and I will do my best to prove that every idea that runs counter to mine, and the people who support me, is not only irreligious, but blasphemous in every particular.” Their parishes, the flock entrusted to their care, is a matter of secondary consideration as long as these so-called shepherds can bleat before the public and receive in return the applause of a carefully drilled claque that simply shows an artificial appreciation when it receives its cue, and in reality does not possess either the heart or brains to thoroughly understand the question under discussion, or comprehend actually what is going on. “ Peace on earth and goodwill to men,” is it? We ask in all fairness, Is it a plank in the platform of the Prohibitionists ? No—emphatically no. With Pharasaic pertinacity they insist that there is only one line of conduct that may be considered right and proper, and that line they have mapped out. Their coat of arms, to speak figuratively, is surmounted by the motto of bigotry and intolerance ; and when they bring to their aid the precepts of religion or philosophy, the principle upon which they act may be embodied in the sentence, “ Orthodoxy is my ’doxy and heterodoxy is your ’doxy.” By what right are they empowered to spoil our natural indulgences ? Who has made their representatives living re-incarnations of the bigotry of John Knox? We protest, and every fair-minded man in Auckland protests —-.yes, we may say in New Zealand—against the attempt to resurrect a'

species of Spanish Inquisition, whose attention shall be especially devoted to hounding respectable men engaged in the liquor traffic into a corner, where they must be treated as either offenders against society, or pariahs worthy of social ostracism. Our feelings to our readers, and to the world at large, are of a kindly nature tinged with merriness, and if we seem to be a bit acid in our remarks it is only that we must have our fling at those who would cast an ascetic gloom over the friends whom we wish every joy and pleasure to during the coming holidays. Good luck to all is our wish, and the toast is one that can only be healthily given when the calculating brain resigns its throne for awhile, and bows to the emotional heart.