THE AUCKLAND SCRIPTURE GIFT ASSOCIATION AND MAYOR AND TOWN COUNCIL, WANGANUI.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 113, 14 May 1888, Page 2

THE AUCKLAND SCRIPTURE GIFT ASSOCIATION AND MAYOR AND TOWN COUNCIL, WANGANUI.

(To tho Editor.)

Sir, —As a few lines referring to the above Society appeared in your published telegrams from Wanganui on last Thursday, will you kindly afford spaco for a brief explanation respecting the same ? On the 25fch ultimo there was reported in your telegram columns as follows :—"That great excitement prevails here (Wanganui) over the coming prize light, and a public half-holiday is proclaimed on the occasion." This announcement caused an utter astonishment to probably many thousands of persons in the colony, and the statement remained uncontradicted for fully a week. Of course, it is always presumed that no special public holiday in any township of importance can occur without the sanction of the presiding mayor. Some rather cutting criticism on the topic appeared in the " Calamo Currentc' columns of the Auckland "Herald." The.se wero cut from that paper and enclosed to the Mayor of Wanganui, with the casual query added: "Was n,ot all New Zealand disgraced by this public action at Wanganui ?" The impress mark of tho S.G. Association was likewise given. A few days later a paragraph appeared in the Star stating that tho statement about the holiday was untrue—the result of a telegraphic error. In a second notice in the "Herald" also, the fact of a public halfholiday having been proclaimed was contradicted, and this also, in common faiiness, was at once forwarded to the Mayor by this Association. Now, concerning the Scripture Gift Association and its action in tho matter. This Society was established and is carried on solely in behalf of the best interests of the youth of Auckland and the colony; and when, therefore, any glaring injury to the young is made prominent it is in-full accordance with its principles to raise some protest. And surely if ever in the nineteenth century a most outrageous decision was published in any civilised and Christian community, it was the foregoing one, by which the youth of the district were to bo encouraged to witness a most demoralising and vile spectacle.—Yours, etc., S. Rout, Agent and Hon. Treasurer A.S.G. Association. P.S. : Should this communication meet the eye (and heart) of any well-wisher of the young, and resident at Wanganui, it may be well here to notify that a single donation of £5 forwarded to the depot of the Auckland Society, with the names of three or five, or more, suitable individuals as a committee (ladies eligible), would at once ensure the establishment of a new Scripture Gift Association at that town, and all needful details and suppliesfor a period would be forwarded from this city, and at liberal terms.—S.R.