AUSTRALIAN MORALS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2325, 22 September 1898, Page 27

AUSTRALIAN MORALS.

The Rev. Dr Duff, of Free St. George's, Glasgow, and convener of the Colonial Committee of the Free Church of Scotland, who was sent out as the church's delegate to the Otago Jubilee, returned to Sydney from Western Australia on the sth inst. In the course of an interview he was asked by a representative of the Daily Telegraph : "What is your impression of the moral condition of the colonies generally?" Dr Duff replied: "What one finds as applying more or less to all the colonies is the tendency on the. part of all classes to be fully engrossed in the struggle for wealth. The love of gain and the pursuit of pleasure, with the consequent instability and restlessness of character, render it difficult for the churches to maintain a high standard of Jife and work. A spirit of unbelief and irreverence asserts itself strongly, and there are problems in society and in the church that can really not be solved unless in their very foundations of lire in the family circle. The missing link, it is to be feared, in young communities generally, is to be found in the looseness of the family tie, and the lack of parental restraint, with all that that means. Whether the Bible have its place in the State schools or not, the one great need is that it should have its right place in the home. "On the whole the tone of the press in the colonies generally seems to me to bo creditable, and on the side of righteousness. I visited a good many public schools also, and found a gratifying standard of teaching and management. The care* of the young, or, as it is termed at Home, the welfare of the youth, should certainly hold a first place in the thoughts of the church. The impression I gained by a general survey of the churches as to their needs is that help is specially required by West Australia and Queensland, and, to some lesser degree, by Tasmania and North New Zealand. South New Zealand and Victoria and New South Wales are at * different stage, and are less dependent upon" heir) from the old country. "In this lengthened tour, embracing all the colonies of Australia, I have been struck by the various types of colonial minister, all of them useful, and each filling an important place. Their attributes varied. In some cases they are a preaching power of scholarship ; in some power of organisation or capacity for dealing with, public affairs ; in some a conspicuous quality is the pastoral gift ; and in some one is deeply impressed with the evident desire for holiness of character. All of these, as I have said, have an important place, and undoubtedly the greatest gift of all — that which exercises a commanding, although often unrecorded, influence on tho | congregation and the community — is elevai tion and saintliness of character. What the church as a whole needs, above all things, is loyalty to her great Head, a desire to serve Him with her best, and an earnest waiting upon God for the power of the Holy Ghost. Such gifts have unquestionably been the secret of all that is best in the life and traditions of tha church in the old lands, and, amid all the worldliness and unbelief and difficult problems of the new, the same course must be followed."