“MODEL FOR WORLD”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 449, 3 September 1928, Page 14

“MODEL FOR WORLD”

VIRTUES OF AUCKLAND PREACHER’S DEFENCE “Self-elected censors of public morals should hesitate to condemn, the whole community,” said the Rev. A. Thornhill, in a sermon preached at the Unitarian Church, Ponsonby Road, last evening. He was referring to the recent demonstration against Auckland’s sins, and went on to say that there was not enough virtue to justify complacency among those concerned with the city’s spiritual welfare; but at the same time, wholesome spiritual influences were at work, and Auckland might weli become a model for the world. Comparing Auckland night life with that of other cities, the preacher said he was satisfied that its moral standard was higher than in most other cities of the same size. There was less drunkenness and flagrant flaunting of vice than in big English cities. There were, of course, obvious sources of reproach, the principal being evils resulting from drunkenness, but these should be attributed to the offenders themselves, and__not to the whole community. “There is no need to be discouraged,” he said, “for there are preachers, teachers, right-thinking men and women, and splendid fathers and mothers all working for the good of the present generation. “Their influence is enough to overthrow the evil forces.’*