Drinking concerns Svnod

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33967, 7 October 1975, Page 22

Drinking concerns Svnod

The Christeurch Diocesan Synod last evening voted strongly against reducing the drinking age to 18. It called on members of the Anglican Church to write |to their members of Parliament opposing the lowering of the drinking age. It also requested the Government "to give priority to the funda{mental, and increasing, problem of society’s inability to ihandle alcohol in the face of ■powerful advertising.” The remit was sponsored bv the Rev. S. T. Ballantyne, who told the synod that it would be reprehensible if the amendment to the Liquor Act allowing 18-year-olds access to retail liquor outlets was allowed to become law unchallenged. His seconder. Mrs E. G Smith, described the proposed amendment as “the most appalling piece of legislation ito go before Parliament for .some time.”

{ They were by far in the majority, and the remit was I passed with only a few dissenting voices. Among these, however, were Canon J. F. B. Keith, and the Rev. W. D. Morrell, hospital chaplains at the Christchurch Public Hospital. Canon Keith said that young people had to have somewhere to go, and public houses should be "a lively place where the whole family can socialise." Mr Morrell said it was not teenagers who could not cope with liquor but the whole society. More emphasis should be placed on adjusting society’s attitudes to liquor, he said.