University Moral Laxity Alleged

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30178, 9 July 1963, Page 8

University Moral Laxity Alleged

DUNEDIN, July 7. A leading member of the Salvation Army believes there is an “almost open advocacy” of promiscuity and intimacy in New Zealand universities. "In intellectual circles there seems to be a complete indifference to the sanctity of sex,” the chief secretary of the Salvatiora Army in New Zealand, Colonel A, B. Cook, said today in Dunedin.

Colonel Cook, who is a graduate of the University of Otago Medical School, and an arts graduate of Auckland University, was speaking at a rally to celebrate the eightieth anniversary of the army’s activities in south Dunedin.

“The vulgarisation of sex is the theme of the age.” he said. “Society greets the likes of the Profumo affafr with amusement and indifference. There is no protest." Certain sections of the press inflated the sordid and the sensuous to meet the demands of the public. Speaking of New Zealand generally, Colonel Cook said: “Money, money is the craze.” One of the greatest problems was affluence and arising

(New Zealand Press Association)

from this there was neglect, ignorance and sin, “which is undermining our society.” He said that the Golden Kiwi lottery would become “a Frankenstein, cutting the sinews and morals of society."

Because of its opposition to gambling, the Salvation Army would not accept any benefits from the lottery. “Although hamstrung by lack of funds for our youth work, we will do our best and get our funds from honest, hard work and personal sacrifice,” he said. "Gambling cuts into the very roots of society, destroying the natural urge for people to work for their money."

Colonel Cook was also critical of the effects of alcohol on society, and the secularisation of the Sabbath. “Easter,” he said, “has become for some a time of races, holidays and Bugs Bunny.” He described Salvationists as “the biggest society of abstainers, in the world.” He added: “But we have as much fun as anybody else without if ”

Joy is not in things; it is in us.—Wagner.