SYDNEY’S MORALS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 764, 10 September 1929, Page 1

SYDNEY’S MORALS

“NO WORSE THAN ANY OTHER CITY” MINISTER’S OPINION “Progress is not like a motor-car on a concrete road—it is like a pendulum and swings higher every time.” The Rev. Dr. Scott-West, ex-Mod-erator-General of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, has the greatest faith in humanity. He considers that the present unrest is only a passing phase and quoted the above remarks to prove it. “Everything will come right,” he said this morning on the Makura, when asked whether there was any truth in the stories concerning the immorality of Sydney. “Sydney is no worse than any other city,” he remarked. “You had the same thing in Auckland 40 years ago.” Thirty years ago Dr. Scott-West was minister in charge of St. David's Presbyterian Church in Auckland. He now has charge of St. James’s, Burwood, Sydney. Those are the only two churches he has been with in his long labour for the Church. Dr, Scott-West was ModeratorGeneral for the Presbyterian Church of Australia for two years and is senior chaplain to the forces in New South Wales. “People who talk of the lack of morals today should study the history of the 18th century in France and England,” he. said in his convincing way. “It is a lack of historical study which is creating pessimism today.”' Dr. Scott-West considers that the flat system is a bad thing. “Flats are respectable slums,” he said. “All home life' ’ goes when people live in them."

During the time Dr. West-Scott was Moderator-General of the Presbyterian Church he toured every part of the Commonwealth of Australia, and saw enough of people to convince him that they are good at heart. He will spend a holiday in New Zealand renewing old acquaintances.