METHODIST CHURCH

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 130, 26 February 1929, Page 12

METHODIST CHURCH

WEEK-END EXCURSIONS

PROTEST BY CONFERENCE By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, February 25. At the Methodist Conference the election of a professor foi; Trinity .College resulted in the Rev. W. T. Bhght receiving 101 votes, and the Rev. 1 - • Glade 97 votes in the final ballot. The Rev. Blight was then unanimously elected. *• A resolution recording deep regret at the death of Mr. A. C. Caughey was carried. „ . . _ The report of the Wesley Training College Trust Board stated that a pleasing feature of the year’s enrolment was that a large number of boys came from Methodist homes, while it was also most satisfactory that there was an increasing number of boys who were keenly interested in, and desirous of following agricultural occupations. The past year had probably been the smoothest running year the college had experienced. The farm was looking particularly well, and although a long spell of dry weather caused a great deal of anxiety in the early part of the ve"r, the year as a whole had been a good one. During the past few months the farm had produced SOO tons of hay and 780 tons of ensilage, while 600 fat lambs, 35 stud rams and 40 stud ewes had been sold. Fifteen bales of wool were also marketed in 1925. Agriculture had been commenced and at present the college possessed 60 hives of A bequest of £5OO by the late Rev. W. S. Potter, of Ponsonby, for the establishment of a rest home in the North Island for ministers and home missionaries; was announced. The Methodist Conference unanimously carried the following resolution: “We desire to draw attention, to what appears to be'the settled policy of the present Government in the regular organising of week-end excursions on the railways, thus ■ apparently seeking to bring in a Continental Sunday; we wish to enter our emphatic protest against this deliberate policy of Sabbath desecration, because of its deteriorating effect on the moral and spiritual well-being of the people; we sincerely believe this action of the Government to be opposed to all the best traditions of the British people, in that it helps to destroy the necessary quiet of the Christian Sabbath, and helps .to. .foster, a disregard for the sanctity, of the Lord’s Lay. We therefore earnestly call upon the Government to reverse its policy by the abolition of such week-end excursions.”