PRAYERS FOR RAIN AND EARTHQUAKE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 44, 20 August 1930, Page 15

PRAYERS FOR RAIN AND EARTHQUAKE

There were both joy and sorrow at Waimauku when rain fell last Saturday night. A dance had been arranged at the local hall in aid of the Rev. Jasper Calder's city mission and it was necessary to postpone the glad event —a decision which caused many regrets in a district where dancing is popular (states the "Auckland Star' 1). On tho other hand, the wet night was not regretttod by the members of the Waimauku Interdenominational Bilrfe Class, who severely frown on dancing as a means of serving. a good end. Up to this point, the people of Waimauku had looked upon dances merely as something on which there might be a difference of opinion, but a schism developed when members' of the Bible Class announced that on the night before tho dance, they had gathered and prayed for five hours that something might intervene. Prayer had also boon offered for an earthquake to swallow up a hall, where the owner runs a. billiard table, but so far tho lads of tho village still. make ' the snooker balls click. The story one hears in Waimauku is tha: a few young men, all under tho ago of twen-ty-iivo years, havo got together and formed a new religious sect. They style themselves "Interdenominatiouals." The numerical strength of the band is not divulged. For sonw time there wore murmurings about their activities. One woman in the district complained bitterjy that she had been communicated with by telephone and told that she belonged to the wrong sect, and, that she should, join forces with the now one.