COMBINED MEETING OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOUR SOCIETIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2362, 1 June 1899, Page 30

COMBINED MEETING OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOUR SOCIETIES.

A combined meeting of Dunedin and Suburban Christian Endeavour Societies was held ai Tiinity Wesleyan Church on the 30th in \iew of the century commemoration celebrations in connection with the Wesleyan Methodist Church in New Zealand. Mr R. N. Vanes presided, and there was a very fair attendancs, but comparatively few of those present were Christian Undeavourers. Addresses were given during the evening by the Revs. P. W. Fairelough. W. A. Sinclair, and T. (i. Brooke, all of whom referred more or less \aguely to the fund which it was proposed to laise in New Zealand in connection with the Wesleyan body. It apparently did not occur to any of the speakers to explain explicitly that it was intended to celebrate the dawn of tho twentieth century by -raising a commemoration fund of £60,000 for the consolidation and extension of the church in the colony. Of this pum £42.500 is to be devoted to the liquidation of all trust debts, while the balance is to go to various other purposes. The object of last night's mooting Feemed to be to impress upon Methodihts their duty in relation to the fund. The Rev. Mr Fairclough £j.ave a brief sketch of the history of Methodism, in which he referred to the great influence that John Wesley had exerted in the promotion of religion throughout the world. At the time of Wesley's death, he said, there were not more than a million Methodists, while at the present time there were not less than 20 millions. The Rev. W. A. Sinclair

spoke on the " Spiritual Aspect of the Century Fund," and said he believed that the work of the church to-day was to a very large extent strangled and nullified through the existence of large church debts. He expressed the opinion that it would be an easy matter to raise £60,000 in New Zealand, but he said they must make a determined effort to win men and women for Christ, and the more determined they were in that direction the more easy it would be to secure the money they desired. The Rev. T. G-. Brooke referred to the " Financial Aspect of the Fund." and pointed out that if every member of the church gave 5 per cent, of his income to the church it would be " rolling in wealth." He thought that £60,000 was not too much to expect to get for the fund if people only made up their minds to raise it. It onlymeant £1 from each Methodist in the colony.

Mr Arthur Pease, M.P., of Darlington, who died on August 27 last, left estate the gross value of which was £439,436.

Luscious strawberries are reported to be growing at the present time at Taupe The fruit has been in season there since November, 1898, a period of six months.

The Portobello Road Board at their meeting on Saturday rescinded that part of their by-law requiring cyclists to dismount and stand by their machine? on the water side when meeting any horse drawing or ridden.

The local Free Press gives it as an "on dit " that two young men from Dunedin collected no less than two tons of empty bottles — mostly beer and whisky — from Balclutha residents in three days last week. That tells a tale of prohibition".