THE ISLES OF PROMISE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1348, 27 January 1912, Page 4

THE ISLES OF PROMISE.

• «: .COLONEL FISHER ON PAKATOA AND ROTOROA. Colonel Fisher, of the Melbourne Headquarters Staff of the Salvation Army, concluded his brief tour of Now Zealand y». . terda,v % when lie left for Sydney by the Tjlimaroa. As has been previously staled, lie was commissioned to como to'the. Dominion to mako road.v for the new order of control to be established wilh the coming into operation of tho territorial regime, which will give New Zealand a Commissioner of its own, answerable only to headquarters in London. Colonel Fisher has just paid a visit to Auckland, where th» uffairs of tho Army arc flourishing in line with the general prosperity of the city and district. Speaking about Rotoroa and Pakatoa, the islands secured by the Army for tho purpose of inebriate reformatories, Colonel Fisher states that there had been a good deal of prejudice against tho idea at first, and 6omo people had run away with tho idea that tho Army had been "put up to do it," which was absurd. "Wo havo now," he continued, "a hundred men on Rotoroa, and 42 women on Pakatoa, and things aro working very smoothly. Of courso there aro some very 'hard cases' among both men and women, and it really remains with tho individual as to whether ho or she wants to break the cursed drink habit, which pulls them down to the lowest dopth6. All we do is to provido them with an opportunity of breaking with it—and that under ideal conditions. It is hard, relentless work to 'lnake them see at first that tlicy are on tho islands for their own good, but after a bit they come to realise that wo aro doing our best to pull them out of the slough drink has cast them into. The scheme is still in an experimental stage, but tho results aro satisfactory. Brigadier Bray estimates that there aro 30 per cent, of "saves" effected from those who hav® lived on the isles of promise.