TWO CRUSADERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 452, 6 September 1928, Page 16

TWO CRUSADERS

AUCKLAND’S “SIN AND INIQUITY”

COMMENT IN HOUSE

(THE. SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, To-day. The recent Salvation Army “sin parade” in Auckland was mentioned in the House of Represen- • tatives during the discussion on the police report by Mr. J. A. Lee, who said that twelve months ago, when last year’s prison report was presented, he had had occasion to refer to the commissioner’s alarming statements about sin and iniquity in Auckland.

“To-day,” said Mr. Lee, “we have another commissioner, this time of the Salvation Army, making more alarming statements about Auckland’s sin and iniquity. Twelve months ago the Police Commissioner said that he was about to start a crusade for cleaning up Auckland. Are we to take the mourning parade in Auckland the other day as evidence that the commissioner has failed to deliver the goods. I do not think so. I have a feeling that this time it is not the Police Commissioner, who is in error, but rather the other commissioner. I think Auckland, and other New Zealand towns, are law-abiding places. Auckland is not as black as it has been painted. “At a time when Auckland is receiving so much unfavourable advertisement it would be interesting if the commissioner were to say that there had been an all-round improvement. It would lead one to think the mourning parade had taken place in the wrong town. -1 do not think Auckland such a terrible town. True, young folk dance a little, ladies perhaps smoke cigarettes, and one or two individuals may go into a hotel to see a man about a dog, hut even the member for Lyttelton would hardly consider that an occasion for mourning. “If we look at the police reports, based on fact, not fiction, we will see that New Zealand cities acquit themselves creditably,” concluded Mr. Lee, who appealed for better conditions for members of the Police Force who were doing such excellent work. • Mr. W. E. Parry said that there were far too many who contracted a pain behind their ears if they laughed, and who were prone to see sin where none existed. He believed the commissioner of the Salvation Army had allowed imagination to triumph over fact. Had the police reported that things wee so bad in Auckland? The Minister of Justice, the Hon. F. J. Rolleston, said he knew of no report which had been made by the police in Auckland to the Salvation Army. Mr. Parry: But you notice the Army says it had information from the police. The Minister: You can accept my assurance that the police have not made a report to them.