METHODIST SYNOD.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 64, Issue 33, 18 November 1943, Page 2

METHODIST SYNOD.

VIEWS ON PUBLIC QUESTIONS. LICENSING LAWS CRITICISED. TIMARU, This Day. Resolutions on public questions were adopted by the South Canterbury Methodist District Synod yesterday. The Rev. W. Avery presided, with the Rev. R. B. Gosnell as secretary. The Rev. F. O. Prosser was elected district representative at the conference. “This Synod expresses concern and indignation at the alarming wartime increase in the consumption of intoxicating liquors, and the increased lawlessness evidenced in the traffic thereof; and urges the Government to expedite the setting up of the Royal Commission promised by it with a view to the reform of these abuses. Synod would emphasise the urgency, in the meantime, of a stricter enforcement of the presbnt licensing regulations,” was the text of a resolution carried.”

The reinstatement of the local option poll by the Government was also unanimously supported by the Synod. The right of conscientious objectors to appeal and have their cases reheard before a specially constituted tribunal was affirmed. Enthusiastic support was given to a resolution, moved by Mrs R. McAlister requesting that the Government appoint women police in Timaru.

In connection with the movement toward the union between the Presbyterian, congregational and Methodist Churches, measures to avoid overlapping and toward co-operative fellowship and activities were approved, f Reports of overseas and of Home and Maori Missions disclosed a very generous response on the part of circuits toward the special needs of these branches of church work. The nine branches of the Women’s Missionary Union in the district, reported Mrs; Matthews, had raised £350 fpr the yeai\ Mr L. Hudson, district property secretary, spoke of healthy trust activities over the year.

At the evening session proposals and reports concerning youth work in the district were considered.