WEDDING CELEBRATIONS

Taranaki Daily News, 1 June 1927, Page 7

WEDDING CELEBRATIONS

WINE DRINKING DEPRECATED. AUCKLAND MINISTERS’ VIEWS. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. A resolution viewing with concern the great prevalence of the practice of wine drinking at wedding celebrations was passed by the Auckland Ministers’ Association. The Rev. .Professor 11. Ranson spoke of the danger to which young people were exposed who acquired a taste for liquor by indulging for the first time at marriage festivities,* and quoted several instances of pledged members of young people’s temperance societies who had been persuaded to break their pledge on such occasions. He considered the attention of ministers of religion should be drawn to the danger and that at least the churches represented in the Ministers’ Association should make some pronouncement on the question. The Rev. George Jackson suggested that if ministers, before consenting to perform a marriage ceremony, stipulated that no wine should be served at the reception, this would tend to discourage the practice. In the discussion which followed it was stated that action along the lines suggested had already been taken by certain ministers connected with the association. A member stated that frequently in cases where a reception was held at a restaurant, the wine was provided by the caterer as a matter of course, unless he was specifically instructed to the contrary.