THE TACTICS OF THE SMALL PERCENTAGE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 943, 2 April 1908, Page 20

THE TACTICS OF THE SMALL PERCENTAGE.

The Vicar of Midhursr (Sussex) has his own views on the temperance question, and the following letter from his pen appears in a local paper He heads his epistle “The Tyranny of Temperance,” and says :— “A conference was recently held at my house beween representatives of the Free Church Council of Midhurst and of the Church of England Temperance Society. It was resolved to ask the local magistrates to reduce the number of licensed houses in Midhurst, and to hold .a public meeting in January to agitate for the Sunday closing of public-houses I have declined to be a party to either agitation. “It is by no means certain that shutting of public-houses diminishes the

amount of liquor, consumed. It produces no effect on the number of persons wno drink to excess. ' The confirrned sot will not be checked by any ■■absence of facilities/ but in one way or another will get what he wants. Total-prohibition would not be tolerated in England, and no measure short of this will reform the' man ' with an acquired or inherited craving. “As,: to. the specific, of Sunday closing we have/some trustwbrih— evidence/ By: almost Universal consent the Welsh experiijfeflt ' ftas broken • down. : That is. to say, evasions of the law are so impudent and; so&ematic that ipany good, folks have confessed; tbe'if disgust at the hypocritical pretence. : Our working men do not want ,to be. told what/they shall drink and when "fhey/shall.’gb: to/djed. /They prefer to assemble at places where they can obtaip such refreshment as they desire — not) sji,ch-as .is .prescribed for them by politicals land moral advisers. '

“Tljere is also a wider obligation which falls* sHpon us as Englishmen, tb resent grandmotherly supervision, and to cherish the/personal. liberty which is how threatened;, j?y- 'a,- clique -of fussy zealots. The teetotal party is inconsiderable in point of ritmtb'ers; but. it makes up by energy, for it /lacks in', authority and commoi/i sehsev” •