COMING VISIT

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 169, 13 April 1935, Page 17

COMING VISIT

General Eva Booth’s Message “LONGED FOR THIS DAY” The following message to the people of New Zealand has been forwarded by General Evangeline Booth, world leader of the Salvation Army, who will arrive at Wellington from Sydney, via Auckland, on Sunday, April 28 :— “My heart overflows with an abounding joy as I contemplate my approaching visit, and I am looking forward with eager anticipation to my first glimpse of New Zealand’s romantic and beautiful shores—your charming land of the Long White Cloud. “All my life I have longed for this day of infinite privilege, and now that it is upon me it is not easy to put into words the intensity of my soul’s longing that God may confirm with His blessing, ‘above all that we can ask or think,’ the generous hospitality which a warm-hearted nation extends to a soldier of the battlefields of the Redeemer of mankind. “Knowing nothing of political, racial or religious differences among those for all of whom, alike, our Saviour died, I ask the Father of all mercies that my coming into your midst shall be made an epochal occasion in your history, not because we shall experience the joy of looking into each other’s faces, and touching with love each other’s hearts, but because of the rich and lasting benediction He shall make me. during my visit to your beautiful Dominion. Inspired by History. “The history of New Zealand inspires me with enthusiasm. I think upon what this great country has become, how its sovereignty has developed within the British Commonwealth and the League of Nations, and, considering its advantageous position in the Southern Pacific, my heart is stirred within me by the consciousness of what will be the New Zealand of the future. “Oh, that you may utilise to the full your rapidly increasing opportunities. Already your population is greater than the population of England when William the Conqueror won the Battle of Hastings, and I cannot doubt that in the centuries to come New Zealand will be called upon to play a part comparable with that of England in influencing the destinies of the peoples of the world. “Is not this the supreme responsibility of your matchless island? Your loyalty to that responsibility is evidenced in your care for the Maori peoples, and for the islands entrusted to you by mandate of the League of Ntaions. Social Equality. “I have long admired the sense of social equity with which successive Governments of New Zealand have adjusted the contrast between wealth and poverty to the best interests of a common citizenship. The policy of the_Dominion has been an example to other nations, and during my visit I hope that I may learn more of it at first hand. “The Salvation Army has had only too sad an experience of the disastrous results that accompany bad housing, sweated wages, the use of liquor, and other evils withi D the body, politic. The influence of prudent and far-sighted government on the happiness of countless homes is moral .as well as political. “It makes us happy to think that the isolation of these loveliest islands bglow the equator is fast coming to an end. Quickened transit by steamer and aeroplane is drawing all countries within one comprehensive civilisation. Every year, by increased speed or some new mechanical invention, we come physically nearer to each other. Oh, that we may use man’s marvellous discoveries of the bidden powers of Almighty God’s creation to weld not only all government and commercial interests, but to unite the spirit of the peoples of the earth, so that war and destructive discord shall be impossible.”