PRAYER AT A BREWERY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 812, 5 November 1929, Page 1

PRAYER AT A BREWERY

Otahuhu Demonstrations DIVINE INTERVENTION SOUGHT Assemblage Kneels On Roadside “IJECAUSE we have had no help from Parliament or man D we have come to ask God to do what man will not do. . . . We ask Thee to turn this building into a flour-mill, a woollen-mill, a dairy-factory, or a church. .. .” More than 100 women knelt before the new building of the Waitemata Brewery on the main South Koad near Otahuhu. Ignoring a blustering wind which tore at the upraised banners, they closed their eyes in prayer while their leader, Mrs. Harrison Lee Cowie, gave voice to their feelings.

There was considerable delay this morning before the beginning of a pilgrimage and ceremony that roused the attention of the whole of Otahuhu and brought many parties of visitors from Auckland and the surrounding districts. The decision of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union to voice its protest against the building of the brewery at Otahuhu by appealing for Divine intervention had not passed unnoticed. Long before 11 a.m., whgn the prayers at the brewery were timed to begin, motor-cars packed the side roads and curious onlookers lined points of vantage. Indoors, a number of privileged visitors, including representatives of the Manukau County, partook of the hospitality of the brewery management and sampled a little something straight out of the wood. In between times they kept an eager eye on the road from the township. At Otahuhu a formidable crowd lined the streets, while the members of the W.C.T.U. waited in the assembly hall. It was intended originally that they should march to the brewery, but this scheme was abandoned, and two large buses waited for the preliminary prayer-meeting to close. PRAYER MEETING There was a long wait, it being explained that the women were waiting for an increase of their numbers. Then a prayer meeting, led by the Rev. T. H. Eccersall, Baptist minister at Otahuhu, and Mrs. Harrison Lee Cowie. After a preliminary address by Mrs. Harrison Lee Cowie, Mr. Eccersall read the following manifesto:- — “Let it be understood that we have no quarrel with the owner of the brewery. I have never met that gentleman, and I desire here and now to express my best, wishes for his well-being. "He may be a generous, genial, and good moral person in many ways, but he has ‘a hell of a job.’ “I submit the following proposals to all thinking people who have the welfare of others at heart: “(1) Man is either an indeterminate factor, a mere article of the world’s furniture, here today and away tomorrow, or

"(2) He is a moral being with a sense of accountability. If he is such, —and all history, legislation, and his moral make-up combine to say he is—then he has an obligation to perform to the community, a duty he should discharge. If the Church possesses no civic conscience, it becomes a mere religious club. “I am surprised at the attitude of. some church people, but I remember that it was the religious leaders of the day that persecuted, cast out, and sought the death of our Saviour. Our mayor and council are not free of their responsibility in this matter, in our judgment. If the function of the council is to see that the people have good roads and drainage, then I have no room to complain. But if the mayor is the chief magistrate, then his office carries a moral responsibility to the community, and although the brewery is not in the Otahuhu borough proper, it is sufficiently near to be both a menace to the town as -well as the travelling public.

“The Prime Minister has submitted that the licence for the brewery was granted without the serious consideration it should have received.” declared Mr. Eccersall. “We, therefore, submit that a grave injustice has been committed and urge that the licence be cancelled, even if compensation be given, and hope that the present brewers will put their w.oney into a better form of investment that shall help forward the prosperity and sobriety of the people of the district. “In conclusion, let me challenge the present position in the light of the future. Will everyone step forward and. say: ‘Let me take the responsibility of all the distress, degradation and death that will be recorded on the pages of history during the next ten years!?’ There Is such a thing as the judgment of history, and the Prime Minister, brewers, councillors, churches and community must face it. Believing that to be so, in the name of God and home and humanity, we make our protest this morning. Whatever else happens, let the record go upon high, ringing throughout the laud and down the ages: ’We protest.’” ON A GRASSY KNOLL

Prayers and hymns followed, and the party entered the buses and were driven direct to the brewery. More than 100 onlookers watched eagerly while the pilgrims descended from the buses and formed up before the brewery. The employees at the main gate raised a mild cheer, but there was no other demonstration, and the audience stood in silence until the close of the proceedings. The women approached a grassv knoll on the roadside opposite the office, forming a half-moon, the points of which were marked by flags. One big banner announced, “Save the Child and You Save the Nation.” Each woman wore her blue ribbon. One man had joined the delegation. He stood a little apart from the rest, his head also bowed in prayer. “We have come to ask God to turn this building into a place of good and not of evil,” began Mrs. Harrison Lee Cowie, kneeling on the grass in the centre of the half-moon. “We all know that drink is the cause of accidents, sorrow and poverty. “We ask God to turn this place into a flourmill, a woollen mill or a dairy factory. We approach Thee because we have had no help from Parliament or qjan. “Every boy in gaol Is a mother’s son and 50 per cent of those in the Mount Eden gaol are there because of drink. “O Lord God, we ask Thee in some wonderful way known only to Thyself to make this a place of good and not of sorrow. We ask this for Jesus’ sake.” Other prayers followed but the sub-leaders lacked Mrs. Harrison Lee Cowie’s strong and carrying voice. Most of the latter utterances were picked up and borne away from the audience by the strong breeze which carried also the black smoke from the stack of the busily-working brewery plant. One speaker was heard to pray that the brewery be made even a “ladies' seminary.” Thus the meeting closed, the onlookers remaining silent. The visitors re-entered the buses and returned, and the brewery employees walked back to their work.