CHRISTIAN CONGREGATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 293, 11 December 1925, Page 10

CHRISTIAN CONGREGATIONS.

MEETING OF THE COUNCIL.

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, Thursday. The report of the Council of Christian Congregations presented this evening says gambling is fast becoming a mania, with the people of the Dominion. It is one of the greatest curses of the community, and is helping to make dishonesty the social problem. The council has sought and obtained legal advice concerning the holding of art unions and has consulted with the presbytery as to the line of action it has made and what protest lies in its power. The Minister of Internal Affairs appeared to be alive to the seriousness of the situation. The report says also that social workers of the city, including Salvation Army officials, describe the amount of immorality in Dunedin as "heart-break-ing." The council's difficulty in dealing with the evil has always been to secure

first-hand evidence upon which action could be taken. Evidence of this nature

was supplied to the executive early this I year concerning joy-riding at night, and I las the outcome of some of it the council j | waited on the police authorities, from whom it received a most courteous hearing, but the result was depressing in I the extreme. The police were aware of j it and deplored it. and were doing what , they could to combat the evil, but were ' ! seemingly almost helpless. I