Corresponding Secretary’s Report.

White Ribbon, Volume 1, Issue 10, 1 April 1896, Page 6

Corresponding Secretary’s Report.

Dear White Ribbon Sisters, — It is with much pleasure that I sit down to write a report of the year’s work all over the colony. Twenty Branches have sent me reports, though 1 regret that none has reached me from Dunedin, Feilding, or Rangiora. The outlook is a hopeful one. Our Unions are holding the fort, and several new ones have been formed. Four report an increase of membership, while in the Taranaki district over 70 women have joined our ranks. In view of the approaching elections it is of the utmost importance that we strive to gather in all earnest, thoughtful women, and so extend our influence. As the local reports will be read in your hearing, it is unnecessary for me to enter into details. 1 may, however, be allowed to express my thankfulness at the way in which Social Purity work is coming to the front. Several Branches are engaged in Rescue work, and others in the still more necessary work of preventing young girls from swelling the ranks of our poor fallen sisters. But the most prominent feature of the reports is the activity displayed in distributing e 1 mgelistic and temperance literature. Hardly a Union, however small, but has a share in this effort. If, all over the colony, the W.C.T.U. had done no other work than this it would still have justified its existence. The great need of the time is to tducatt the people, and the books and pamphlets sown broadcast in our trains, trams, ships, hotels, and back streets—as well as among our own members —are exercising an influence which will bear fruit all through eternity. 1 note with satisfaction that several small Unions, unable to do much work, are enlivening their business meetings with essays or extracts bearing

upon one or other of our departments. This is a step in advance. Every woman attending those meetings is storing up facts which will stand her in good stead when unexpectedly called upon to give a reason of the hope of Prohibition that is in her. Some of the smaller Branches are so discouraged that they feel almost inclined to disband. Sometimes they cannot even get enough members together to hold a meeting, and, when they do succeed, are able to do so little w’ork that they feel it to be almost a farce to call themselves a Union at all. May I speak a word of encouragement to these ? Dear sisters, the very existence of a Union, however small, is an education to outsiders, because it makes people think, and that is exactly w'hat we want to do. If you do nothing but meet occasionally and keep each other warm, you have done something. Never give up. Some of our most flourishing Unions have passed through the same dark experience, but they determined to keep together and do their best, and by-and-bye their numbers increased, and they now’ thank God that they were enabled to hold on until the sun shone out once more. I note with regret that very few Unions make mention of pledges obtained. Where are the 20,000 for which Mr Isitt asked before he left for England nearly a year ago ? Let us, even at the eleventh hour, set to work and enrol as many as possible. In conclusion, let me say that I greatly regret being unable to attend Convention this year. I shall think of and pray for you all, asking that the Master Himself may preside over your deliberations, that His own Spirit of love may characterise all your proceedings, and that this Convention may leave an impress upon the history of our land. Yours in the truest of bonds, Mary S. Powell, Cor. Sec. N.Z. W.C.T.U.