PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS, AUCKLAND DISTRICT W.C.T.U. CONVENTION

White Ribbon, Volume 27, Issue 8, 1 December 1955, Page 6

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS, AUCKLAND DISTRICT W.C.T.U. CONVENTION

October, 1955 (By Mrs. A T Richards)

Today is but tomorrow’s page in history; you and I are the authors of what is to be written on that page. . . . Man has always felt that his security lay in a home. When Joshua admonished the Israelites he said, “Choose ye i'lis day whom ye will serve, but as Tor me and my ..house, we will serve the Lord.” Hut later, after J 'shua’s death, we read, “there arose another generation that knew not the Lord, nor the w’orks He had done in Israel.” What about today and today’s children? Fifty per cent, of New Zealand school children have no contact with the Christian Church. When do we begin to build for the future? The future of any generation depends on its homes. The parents’ attitude towards their children must be right; they should feel that their children are privileges, not problems. The atmosphere of the home should be generous, hospitable, kindly, and prayer should have a place in every family. Recent tragic disclosures have made all of us, as parents and teachers, take fresh stock of ourselves. Are we asking the children to go one way, while we go another? New Zealand mothers must awake from slumber, for only then will we have effectually wakened to a consciousness of the evils which are sapping the strength of our land, undermining the moral nature, and invading the sanctity of our home life. A firm stand must be made if the evils of alcohol and gambling are to be overcome, and these foes put to naught. Every effort should be made to make public opinion strong enough to storm the stronghold of the liquor traffic. “Whatsoever we sow, that shall w’e also reap.” Can any Christian fail to see the awful condition that exists among the youth of today with their cocktail parties and loose living a*nd little thought for God or morality? Juvenile crime in this country presents a challenge to every adult to help to produce a remedy. The normal teenager is not a criminal or on the way to being one. They still want a standard set for them, and he or she will welcome good, intelligent adult advice on how to live up to it. I believe that the more we hold up the mirror of decency, the more they respond to it. With an ever-increasing regularity our newspapers, magazines, and our daily experiences bring us face to face with the problem of juvenile delinquency covering a wide range of activities, from petty, aggravating misdemeanours to the most revolting, shocking crimes. Another alarming thing about this delinquency is the fact that the average age of the delinquent is younger with the passing years. Throughout the entire life of the present gci.? r at«on of young people, the picture of crime has Teen so matter-of-fact, so commonplace, and so continuous that many of our young people seem willing to accept it as the normal way of life. News-stand trash, numerous movies, countless radio programmes, and now television, have made the methods and secrets of practically every form of crime common knowledge to a!l who care to know. Detailed plans of the smartest criminals for the cleverest crimes are pictured as confounding the cleverest detectives, and unfathomable but for the “one mistake” the criminal made Too many of our young neople think they arc now smart enough to avoid even that one mistake.

We all agree that children are not horn delinquents, but take on the colouring of their thinking from environment in which they find themselves. Parental failure appears to be one of the greatest tragedies of New Zealand life, for the home that is built around a bar, where alcohol is consumed, is not the kind of home built around the family altar. Auckland Children’s Court disclosed the alarming figures for last year of 1,326 cases, compared with the previous year’s 864. Surely this is enough to make every Christian citizen lift his or her voice against the liquor traffic, which is the major factor of such reports. . . . We arc looking everywhere but in the right place for this remedy. The finger must surely be put on the pulse—“home”. Is mother always home when the children arrive from school? Is liquor consumed in the home in the presence of the children? Do f hey ever hear the Bible read in the home, or hear their parents pray? It cost New Zealand for law and order to keep peace within this country: Justice Department, £1,130.092; and Police, £1,520,914. Justice Tyndall said that for every gallon of beer used in New Zealand last year, £1 was put on the totalisator. Sir Wilfred Sim quoted official figures showing the rise in consumption of beer to 43,460,000 gallons last year, and the increase in totalisator turnover as £43,616,000. It matters not how powerful the liquor traffic may be, the Government must take full responsibility for the serious social drift in the country, and, as W.C.T.U. workers, we must demand and expect the Government to take more rigid steps to bring these abuses under control. I urge women to take a more active pait in public affairs so that we may be able more efficiently to remove these evils. Far too few women have entered public life. Mr. Algie, M.P., said that if we do not go and cast our votes, we dishonour those who procured the vote for us. This failure to take a larger share and responsibility in local affairs could be due to lack of support from other women. Local body service provides good training Women must learn to co-operate with other women. God grant that we may ever sow Temperance seed beside all waters. Public pressure is being brought to bear against vile comic books. This is a wonderful step, which will prevent new publications appearing, but there arc'still thousands of old !>ooks scattered somewhere over the country and should be found and destroyed. Many are saying today that Prohibition failed. Prohibition did not fail, for it never had a chance. Too many politicians, social workers, medical men. and others did not want their rights interfered with, regardless of the misery and suffering that had to be endured. The underlying factors of the alcoholic problem are subtlety, insinuation, and suggestion. There must be a way to combat these three. The approach can only be through Christian people and Christian organizations. Our Churches must continue to tea°h Temperance, for we are our brother’* keeper. Let us notice the obvious concern about liquorcaused crimes which fill our daily papers, rot forgetting traffic accidents, that continue to increase at an alarming rate. There is also a grov ing public realization that social drinking practices of our day prove a liability to an individual, and that a clear

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