AGAINST GAMBLING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 241, 12 October 1933, Page 10

AGAINST GAMBLING.

COLLECTIVE EFFORT URGED.

BAPTIST UNION CRITICISM.

An appeal for a collective effort against gambling, drinking and Sabbath desecration was made by Mr. W. J. Bardsley in his presidential address at the 51st annual assembly of the Baptist Union of New Zealand last evening. "It is hardly necessary for me to remind you of the appalling trend and conditions which obtain in various directions in our fair land with respect to gambling, drinking, eo-callcd sport, picture shows, Sabbath desecration, and the like," he said. "To launch out, as one is seriously tempted to do, a tirade of condemnation and pillorying would, doubtless, set the telegraphic wires aglow and produce flaming paper headlines, added to which there might be reams of newspaper correspondence. Would anything constructive or euDatantial be gained by any prominence that we might give to these harassing subjects? "I have given the question much thought, and. have finally conic to the conclusion that it would be futile for mo as a single unit to attempt to bludgeon the rest of the community into conformity with the attitude, we judge, that most of us think and take with respect to these matters. We must, however, assert that there is real need for a unanimous, impassioned cry and protest, a clarion call from one end of the land to the other, against much that is "happening and being countenanced. This cry must not be individual, it must be collective, unanimous. When it is made, what a blizzard of opposition and vile criticism it will arouse!"