LICENSING ISSUE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 117, 13 November 1926, Page 15

LICENSING ISSUE

NEED FOR ORGANISATION

DELIVEKANCES BY THE

ASSEMBLY.

There was another brief discussion at the meeting of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church yesterday afternoon on the subject of temperance, the subject being viewed in the light of organisation work.

The following deliverftnces were carried :— •..-..'■■

•'That the Assembly^ asks for direct representation on the New Zealand Alliance Executive Committee."

"A campaign to secure active yrork and co-operation conducted by the denomination itself, tho basis of such campaign to be the idea that tha winr r.ing of individuals is the work of the local Church, the Alliance being the or ganised machinery for combined and political action."

"The organisation within congregations of a temperance group who shall do regular work within a given district, such as distribution of suitable educational literature, the local league to be a co-ordinating committee of local activities.''

"The Assembly accepts the general principle of setting free some of our ministers in campaign year, and instructs the committee to prepare a detailed scheme for submission to next Assembly." . • . . .

The Rev. W. J. Comrie (Wellington) said that the Alliance welcomed the assistance of the churches, for without that assistance the Alliance would not live. If there was any fault it lay with the Church, which had failed at times to send its representatives to the Alliance. He was glad that the- matter had come before the Assembly, and hoped that representatives would go back to their churches witjj a renewed vigour.

The Rev. E. H. Hunt (Taranaki) expressed the view that there was something lacking in the present-day organisation of their fight for Prohibition. Six years ago they were only 3000 votes short of the needed majority, three years ago they were 18,000 votes short, and' last year they were nearly 30,000 votes short. Did that show efficiency? If the Church itself took a more active interest in the matrer he felt sure that they would make a big advance towards their goal.