MISS FRANCES WILLARD.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 9990, 21 March 1898, Page 3

MISS FRANCES WILLARD.

A service in memory of Miss Frances Willard,' the founder of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, was held last night at the Opera House. There was a crowded audience, principally of ladies. On the stage were:—Mesdames C Cole (President of the Christohurch branch of the W.C.T.U.) in the chair, Guise, Robinson, Day, Widdowson, Isitt, Smith, Munnings, Howard, Hene, Spencer, Sheppard, Misses Caverhill, Gordon,. Bishop, Roberts, McGuiness and Sister Christian, the Revs. F. Isitt and W. Tinsley, Mr G. J. Smith and others. '

The Chairwoman, in opening the service, spoke of the work done by Miss Willard in founding the W.C.T.U., and said they felt that while they had her writings her work would not cease. She described Miss Willard's crusade against. gambling and drink. Sister Christian, who had met Miss Willard, described her impressions of her. She was one of the noblest women. As someone had put it, she was one of God's best gifts to the women of the nineteenth century. She had a true woman's heart, full of sympathy and tenderness, She (the speaker) thought of her as embodying all that, was simple, noble, grand, beautiful and womanly. Frances Willard had thought that there was no better way of helping humanity than by working the drink traffic out of the country. She (the speaker) said it fearlessly that there would not be the same need for the work of the W.C.T.U. without the drink traffic.

MrG. J. Smith, M.H.R., referred to the death of Frances Willard as a loss to the whole world. They should gather an inspiration-from her life towards the uplift ing of the world. There was no cause in which better work could be done than that in which she was engaged. If they swept the drink traffic out of the colony it would be what it should be, a* paradise of God. Miss McG-iNESS spoke of Miss Willard's good example, and pointed out what work a woman could do without loss of womanliness. Miss Willard owed her high position and success to her mother. After referring at length to the early life and training of Miss Willard, the speaker expressed her abhorrence of the drink traffic, and spoke of the necessity of stamping it out. The Rev. F. W. Ism* said the meeting was full of meaning. All round the world tens of thousands would meet together on that Sabbath in respect to her who bad gone from them. One oharm she had was that she knew no nationality, and had no creed, but it was fitting that they should stand under the American flag (suspended over the stage). America had given them Miss Willard. If by that meeting they could get a hundred helpers Miss Willard would not have lived in vain, and being dead would yet speak. The meeting concluded with the singing of a hymn.