CANTERBURY FREETHOUGHT ASSOCIATION.

Freethought Review, Volume I, Issue 6, 1 March 1884, Page 6

CANTERBURY FREETHOUGHT ASSOCIATION.

Mr. W. Pratt, President and Corresponding Secretary of the above Association, has forwarded his report for the past month, as follows : Since my last report we have had the benefit of '' Ivo's " able assistance, which has attracted large audiences to our Sunday evening meetings. His subjects have been " Jesus and the Prophets,"" Scepticism," and David," in the order named, and last Sunday (ioth) miscellaneous readings. During his visit he also gave two lectures on -week days at the Freethought Hall—on the 23rd January upon Christianity," and on the 13th inst. upon Chas. Bradlaugh. The liberality of the Wellington, Wanganui, and Nelson Press in their reports of his previous lectures, is in marked contrast to the meagre notices which have appeared in the Christchurch papers. A Lieutenant Lowry, of H.M. ship Espiegle, has displayed a good deal of energy at religious and temperance meetings since the ship has been on this coast. On Sunday, the ioth inst, he attended our children's Lyceum, and having obtained permission to relate

an incident of his own life, used it as a vehicle for launching out upon the horrors of an eternal hell, and the merits of the blood of Jesus; but here he was quickly invited to desist, and informed that our object in establishing the Lyceum was to preserve the minds of the children from such fables and delusions. As the incident was silently ignored in the Secretary’s published report, a reverend gentleman, doubtless disappointed that the wolf had not been allowed to make free havoc with the minds of the tender lambs, characterised the report as a “Jesuitical” attempt to make the Lieutenant pose as a Freethinker, evidently forgetting that the Jesuits are regarded as eminently religious, and their practices sanctioned by the highest Christian authorities. The success which has attended the ordinary Sunday School teaching is lamentably apparent in the removal of the head-quarters of the Salvation Army to Christchurch, The c ‘ officers ” have evidently found the Dunedinites too cute to “shell out to the extent desired for their “blood and fire” doctrines, and have discovered that here is a fine field of specially prepared material to work upon, and the poor deluded victims, tortured in mind and cajoled out of their small means, yielding unresistingly to the sulphurous stupefaction, and become dancing, howling puppets in the hands of the wire-pullers, The Committee of this Association have had under consideration a circular from the Dunedin Freethought Association re Federation, and, while recognising the advantages of combined action, consider that time should be allowed for the Associations only recently organised to become firmly established, before entering upon wider fields of action. To-morrow Sunday, 17th, our second Pic-nic takes place, and we confidently expect it will be as great a success as last year, but as it is yet in embryo, I must leave further reference to my successor who will write the next report, as I am about to revisit Europe after a continuous residence in New Zealand of forty-one years. Yours truly, Wm, Pratt President and Corresponding Secretary of the ,C. F. A.