EVILS OF DRINK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 57, 9 March 1942, Page 6

EVILS OF DRINK

PROFOUND CONCERN

CONGREGATION'S RESOLUTION

A unique service was held in the Baptist Tabernacle last night when the minister's wife, Mrs. Alexander Hodge, gave the address. Her subject was named "The Innocents of Auckland," based on the book "The Innocents of Paris," and dealt especially with the drink problem and immorality in Auckland. The text was from the first verse of the 27th Psalm: "Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh in vain.'

Reference was made to the steps taken in Sydney and elsewhere to check drunkenness and immorality. Mrs. Hodge spoke of investigations carried out in Auckland by a group of ladies in association with herself, saying that "our greatest enemy is inside the city, not outside. Our beauty spots are being turned into plague spots." After Mrs. Hodge's eloquent and moving appeal to the congregation. Dr. Hodge, who was presiding, moved the following resolution which was carried unanimously by upstanding vote. "Believing 'that righteousness exalteth a nation' and that 'sin is a reproach to any people,' this congregation of 1100 citizens assembled in the Auckland Baptist Tabernacle on Sunday evening, March 8, desire to place on record their very profound concern at the growing evidence of drunkenness and immorality in New Zealand. In view of the urgent need for maximum national efficiency, they call upon His Majesty's Government of New Zealand to take immediate and adequate steps to check excessive alcoholic indulgence and to deal fearlessly with the moral laxity which is undermining the strength of the people." Canon Coats' View In an interview last night. Canon R. G. Coats, vicar of St. Matthew's Church of England, said he had been aware of what he described as an alarming increase in drunkenness and vice in the city, and on Saturday made a point of conducting certain personal observations. He saw plenty of men in uniform in the streets with, parcels of liquor under their arms, many of them members of the Maori race, to whom the law prohibits the sale of liquor.

He suggested that if hotels were closed from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., open from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and then closed definitely, we would not have the sight of men, coming thirsty from work, yielding to the temptation of gaping doors, and drinking till they could drink no more.