NEW ZEALAND ALLIANCE

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 41, 12 November 1937, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND ALLIANCE

Wellington Area Annual Meeting New Zealand, in common with other countries, was suffering from a lack of moral and spiritual enthusiasm, said the Rev. L. J. Boulton Smith in his presidential address recently to the 52nd annual meeting of the Wellington area of the New Zealand Alliance. Undoubtedly the fervour and force necessary for the uplift of the masses existed to-day, even though in a latent and static form, and could, he believed would, be galvanised into action just as an uncouth youth named Abraham Lincoln was stirred by the sight of a maid enslaved. The spirit of lawlessness raging in the world to-day was threatening to engulf even our splendid country, and it needed the Church of God aroused as of old to withstand and combat the rapidly developing evils of our day. Modern Conditions. Mr. 1-1. W. Milner, general superinteudent of the alliance, gave a brief address on “The Need of and the Result of a Challenge,” taking Elijah’s outburst: “If God be God then serve Him” as a message for modern condi tions. The danger of the day was the undermining and threatening of civic purity and liberty and the challenge was whether democracy could govern itself. That masses-could discipline ■themselves by the acceptance of a simple truth was demonstrated in the fact that to-day 700,000,000 Jews, Mohammedans, and Buddhists practised total abstinence. In this respect these religions shamed the Church in professing Christian countries, who tolerated the evils of drink. The call to-day was for personal abstinence on the basic of Christian ethics, and for mobilised opposition to lawlessness and destructive forces. Drink at Dances. The meeting welcomed the recommendation of a Wellington grand jury that legislation be introduced to prevent the consumption of liquor in dance halls, and in vehicles near dance halls, and expressed its conviction “that by giving early effect to this recommendation the Government would be implementing the desire of a large section of the community in regard to a serious and growing evil.” The meeting noted' with satisfaction the efforts of the police to cope with illegal trading in alcoholic liquor, and recommended that these efforts be continued to secure, particularly in regard to city hotels, stricter enforcement of the existing law; 'it also urged the Government to give consideration to the various recommendations of the Police Department designed to assist it in carrying out its duties.

The Rev. L. J. Boulton Smith was re-elected president, the Rev. A. L. Silcock, secretary, and Mr. H. P. Mourant, treasurer.