FAITH IN YOUTH

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 461, 17 September 1928, Page 14

FAITH IN YOUTH

CAMPAIGN FOR TEMPERANCE At St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Devonport, last evening, an interesting talk on “Scientific Temperance Educaton” was given by Miss Isobel McCorkindale. Introducing Miss McCorkindale, the Rev. W. Lawson Marsh, M.A., explained that she had just returned from a world-wide lecture tour. Taking as her text Mark ix, 28, 29, Miss McCorkindale stated that she was a great believer in the youth of to-day, not necessarily only the young in years, but also the young in spirit and mind. “It is the popular belief that the youth of the present day is decadent. I cannot agree with this belief,” said the speaker. “During my tour I ad dressed some 200,000 young people, and there has never been a finer body of youth in the history of the race.” Speaking on the progress of the world, both spiritually and materially, Miss McCorkindale said: “We have seen in our histories how the race has progressed. We have seen the world throw off idol worship. In the early part of the Bible idol worship is prominent, while in the space of some 400 years in the later Bible it is not mentioned. Slavery has fallen. The times when little children had to work in the mines are past. Child-labour was common less than a hundred years ago, until the nation stepped in to suppress it. Men like Lord Strathspey had taken a stand against it, and it had to cease, as now the nation was stepping in to stop the use of alcohol as a beverage. Continuing, Miss McCorkindale said: "We are on the verge of two epochmaking events in the history of the world, firstly, the outlawing of war, and secondly the breaking of the ancient custom of the use of alcohol as a beverage. The time will come when the use of liquor will be a forgotten custom of the past.” Mentioning Prohibition in America, Miss McCorkindale said that America had gone about the campaign in the right way in educating the people in the advantages of Prohibition, not merely campaigning against the saloon and the bar, as Canada had done. America had got down to the root of things. Australia and New Zealand could never hope to succeed while the abolition of liquor was left to a merely legislative issue.