AWKWARD MOMENTS

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12315, 9 December 1925, Page 6

AWKWARD MOMENTS

AGAINST PROHIBITION VICAR EXPRESSES HIS VIEWS NARROW-MINDED OPPONENTS (By Telegraph.—Special to “Times.”) AUCKLAND, December 8. There were a few awkward moments at a meeting of the Auckland Council of the Christian Congregations last evening, when a layman criticised the Rev. G. Gordon Bell, vicar of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, for taking his stand on the side of State purchase and control. This prompted Archbishop Averill to say he hoped the Council of the Christian Congregations was not going to be a narrow-minded body. He hoped that every member would be allowed to express his mind in the council. The position arose following an address by Mr W. R. Tuck, on tKe recent liquor poll and the lessoris to be learned from it. The community, he said, would' have to be educated so as to create a strong conviction in favour of prohibition in the public mind, and the prohibition party would probably have to carry out an exhaustive programme of education. A special conference would be called early in the New Year to discuss the problem.

Mr Bell rose, at the conclusion of the address, and said that as one utterly and whole-heartedly opposed to prohibition, he hoped to have an opportunity of addressing the council at some future date and of placing before them what he considered would be a remedy for present evils. Under the providence of God, he also hoped to speak on the evils of gambling, a subject which' he had referred to with some emphasis at previous meetings. Ironical laughter and derisive cries greeted his remarks. ACCUSED OF IMPUDENCE A layman of the congregations represented on the council then rose, and, stating that he came into daily contact with working men and that his family had been occasioned much sorrow thrqugh liquor. He alleged that one of the biggest stumb-ling-blocks to the working men was the fact that some ministers of the Church of God could take a stand against ' prohibition. It made the speaker Shudder to think of a Christian minister going about his pastoral ministrations who : had the impudence to stand up and defend the liquor traffic, thus failing ’in his duty to Almighty 'God.

Mr Bell immediately rose to a point of order. He thought that in such a body as the Council of Christian Congregations a' man should have a right to express himself. No one had any right to accuse him of impudence, nor to charge him with failure to discharge his duty before Almighty God: The chairman. (Dr Ranston) ignored Mr Bell’s point of order, and proceeded to put a motion of thanks to the meeting. . "MIGHT SUPPORT HIM”

“Surely we are not going to be a lot of narrow-minded people,” said Archbishop Averill. “Surely my friend here, or any other member, has a right to express himself, and if my friend •here thinks he has a better way, I for one should like to hear him. As you know, I have in the past been on the side of prohibition, but I should like to hear what he has to say. Well, I might possibly support him myself. Any way, 1 should like to think that anyone can hold and express his own ideas here without being regarded as—well, I don’t know quite what they think of him, and I should like to have the opportunity of speaking myself.”

Dr Ranston said he supposed the executive would take notice of what His Grace had said. It was right, Dr Ranston thought, for the council to allow its members to exnress their opinions. " /