W.C.T.U.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 November 1940, Page 8

W.C.T.U.

MASTERTON BRANCH. ANNUAL MEETING. The annual meeting of the Masterton branch of the W.C.T.U. was held on Thursday in the McLaren Room of Knox Church. Miss Tankersley presided and several apologies for absence were received. Mrs Jansen led devotions, reading the 19th Psalm. A motion of sympathy was passed with Mrs MacDonald, now of Palmerston North, in the death of her husband. After the tea interval various annual reports were received and adopted. The Temperance Fact as supplied by Mrs Jansen read as follows: “Alcoholism is one of the most frightful scourges—whether it be regarded from the point of view of the health of the individual, of the existence of the family or of the future of the country. The meeting terminated with the singing of the Temperance Doxology and the Benediction.

Th? annual report stated inter alia: The adult work is being steadily maintained, though regret is felt that the young people’s work has lapsed for want of leaders. After much deliberation an appeal was made to the Sunday schools for more intensive Temperance instruction in the classes. The Superintendent of the Cradle Roll left Masterton to reside in the South Island and we owe Miss Taylor a deep expression of appreciation for her help among the babies and wish for her a happy and useful sojourn on the West Coast. Two at homes were held —one in February at Mrs H. Speights’s house to commemorate the memory of our founder, Miss Frances Willard, .and the other at Miss Tankersley’s home in August. These meetings were well attended and. enjoyed. Protests with regard to stricter supervision on troop trains and wet canteens in Territorial camps have been sent through our district executive. A petition against the latter was handled in August by several of our members, who were well received as they went from house to house. It was very gratifying to learn that our Government had already taken the matter in hand and had made a definite decision against wet canteens in Territorial camps, for which we may feel profoundly thankful. We have also strongly opposed facilities being made for the freer consumption of alcoholic beverages. If all womenr’s organisations would unite against this evil what a force for good and definite reform would result. We owe the local Press a debt of gratitude for publishing our reports. We have lost one member through removal to Taranaki, also a very old member in the person of Mrs Gillespie who passed to her reward in August, thus severing an association of long standing in Temperance work, Mrs Gillespie being one of the foundation members of the Masterton union.