OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE.

White Ribbon, Volume 2, Issue 20, 1 February 1897, Page 4

OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE.

W.C.T.U. OF NEW ZEALAND. 3rd February, 1897. Dear Fellow-labourers, —By the time this issue reaches you all our branches will have made arrangements for sending delegates to the Convention. I should like th* 1 coming Convention to be the best we have yet had, and it will be if we all do all we can to make it a success. We have to remember our weakness, and that will remind us of Almighty power. Paul says, 44 1 can do all things through Christ strengthening me"—so then it is not our weakness, but Christ's strength. With this we are to do His work. Let us spend much of the time that remains in fervent prayer. Ask in faith tor all that we need for our work. In thinking of the past we have not done all that we hoped to do, and yet we may take encouragement for the future from the lessons of the past, and go on to victory. In our purity department I should like all the Unions to express an opinion as to the means to be adopted with Parliament to get the age of protection raised. You will see that I have altered the phrasing of the Act. In a report lately to hand from the Cape I find they use the altered form, because it ought never to be possible for a girl or woman to consent to her own ruin, and that the protection of the law should be afforded till she is legally of age—in the colony 21 years. I shall be glad if all superintendents of departments will at once send me their reports so that I may compile mine. Union reports are, of course, sent to our Corresponding Secretary, Miss Powell. Praying for a rich blessing on all the work and beloved workers, Yours in White Ribbon Bonds, A. J. Schnackenberg.