SOCIAL SERVICE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1709, 28 March 1913, Page 8

SOCIAL SERVICE.

ON CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES. MEETING OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS. Some sixty university students attending the university tournament in Wellington, assembled in the Y.M.C.A. Hall, AVillis Street last Saturday afternoon. The occasion was the consideration of a proposal', that social service, based on Christian principles, should bo undertaken by students and graduates of tho University of New Zealand. The chairman announced that the executive of tho Australasian Student Christian movement had established a social service'department, with Mr. I'. E. Pulsford, a well-known Australian accountant, as its chairman. The purposo of this department was to study the y.ational life of Australia, and New' Zealand, to publish the results of such stmlv, and to lead university students to serve their country in the social and political spheres of national life. University) College Social Service .Leagues liad .baen recently established in Auckland and Wellington, and j( was hoped tliey would be shortly formed in Christchurcii and Dunedin, and that all would be linked up with the new department. The chairman then called on Mr. Alex. Jameson, M.A., the national secretary of tho Y.M.C.A. movement in NewZealand, to speak on "The Expression of. Christianity." Mr. Jameson said that ho liad not visited any place in New Zealand where there was not a need of some-kind waiting to be met. A starved and stunted life was the common possession of _ many men, whether they had much oi'| littlo of material prosperity. A mail's need could not be measured by the state of his purse. , The speaker went on to say that he felt sure that there were many New Zealanders who could meet the needs of their countrv if only they were properly related to them. Patient study of national conditions at first hand to ascertain the facts of national life-was essential. In his view of New Zealand at the present time, the speaker thought that tfic younger generation could usefully send out. a "message of hope, to tho member's of the older generation, by furnishing , them with the conviction that their gifts of money and material for the uplifting of New Zealand were not being wasted, and by proving to t.liem that the new generation would provide many virile citizens. He thought also that in New Zealand, as in other countries, it was very necessary to emphasise the intrinsic . worth of the individual. There were many things making for the destruction of the belief of each citizen in his own essential worth. Only the .infection of a new enthusiasm for humanity spreading from man to man in everincreasing range, could revive in men a true respect for their own selves. TJia Christian law of love was the solvent of trouble and sin in the life of the individual, arid, through the individual, in the life of tho nation. Curfew bells and. police supervision were not radical remedies. Mr. Jameson concluded by saying that the Christian spirit must find ail outlet or die. A living Christianity must express itself in the life of the nation. After a short discussion in which representatives of Otago Universitv, Canterbury College, -Auckland University College, and Victoria College took part, the following resolutions, moved by Mr. P. Carrington (Canterbury College), and seconded by Mr. J. C. M'Dowoll (Victoria College), were put to the meeting and carried unanimously 1.: "We are in earnest for our country. 2. The strength of our Christian purpose is to bo measured by deeds, not words, by the construction'of a better state, not-by figures on a balance-sheet. 3. Wo plaoe the prevention of wasto in manhood and womanhood as the cliicf of New Zealand's industries. . 1. Evangelising agencies are incomplete unless opportunities for everyday unselfish service are given each man and each woman according to tih-eir strength. I 5. Wo believe in reaching every man and every woman through their interests,' not ours.' 6. We will see this thing through.