NEW ZEALAND ALLIANCE

Evening Star, Issue 23511, 27 February 1940, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND ALLIANCE

DEPUTATION TO CHURCH CONFERENCE A deputation from the New Zealand Alliance waited upon the Methodist Centennial Conference this morning, the speaker being Mr H. W. Milner, Dominion secretary, who outlined what the young democracy of Finland, which had just emerged from its twenty-first birthday, was doing in the fight against liquor. There, ho said, the State was doing what they wanted it to do in New Zealand. It was controlling the sale of liquor and 'restricting its alcoholic content. The Government of Finland, too, subsidised temperance societies. Where did New Zealand stand in the fight, the speaker asked. It was essential that the younger people be taught to bo temperance-minded. There had been a terrible increase in the consumption of liquor in the Dominion, Mr Milner said. In 1933, on a gallon basis, the consumption had 1 been 5.9 per cent., while last year it rose to 10.9 per cent. The country had spent 50 millions on building homes, but 150 millions on liquor, and all they had got for it was the creation of drunkards .and criminals. and the speaker went on to refer to the police figures for convictions for drunkenness. Shortly a temperance drive was to he inaugurated 1 , when the spirit of temperance would be revived. He asked for the co-operation of the church to this end. The Rev. J. F. Martin, suitably replying for the conference, told the delegation Methodism still stood' behind the great principles for which the Alliance stood, and the deputation could rest assured of the church’s whole* hearted support in its work.