IMMORALITY

Hokitika Guardian, 20 October 1930, Page 5

IMMORALITY

CANON JAMES’ SERMON

(By Telegraph—Per Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, Oc-t. 20,

Declaring that the statistics of immorality in New Zealand quoted recently by A. G. Butchers were ‘ terribly eloquent,” Canon PeroiVal James in a sermon at St. Paul's ProCathedral said all the sound elements of society must come to the aid of the young men and women in the fight for chastity. 1 They were assailed in the present ago oi transition with novel perplexities and temptations, dust now the odds iseemed marshalled against them. There was nothing new in the, savage ferocity ,-of the attacks upon A. G. Butchers during the past week, on account of passages in lus book which dealt with the moral laxity disclosed in statistics of extra-marital conception. Butchers /shows that the statements in the hook were mainly the quotations of figures officially published in the New Zealand Year Book. 1 am well aware that fallacies may lurk beneath figures, hut Butcher's inference regarding what miglit happen in the future to girls now in om* schools, if the present tendencies persist will peoin to fair-minded people, who can weigh all evidence, to be at least the possible inference from the figures quoted.

The plea made by Butchers and others does not rest upon any inference. It rests upon facts. They speak for themselves. The figures are terribly eloquent. They must be considered as an index of the hidden evil that cannot be measured by statistics. Every one knows that the extent of sexual immorality inU9t be greater than that disclosed by the figures. Th is fresh discussion in the public press should be a challenge to all patriotic men and women to face the fajctis rather than to disregard the facts and abuse the individuals who have courage to direct attention to the facts. To mo it seems incomprehensible that anyone can find comfort or satisfaction in their consideration. There may’be other countries in which this moral evil of unchastity is as bad or even worst than in New Zealand. AYe must deal with the evil that has been shown to exist in our own land.