W.C.T.U.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2453, 18 March 1909, Page 5

W.C.T.U.

ANN UAL CONVENTION.

(Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, March 17. The annual convention of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union will commence business sittings here to-mor-row. The delegates were welcomed by the Wellington branch to-day. Mrs. Boxall, president of the Wellington branch, .who presided, spoke of the good work the union was doing, biie read extracts from letters thanking the union for its successful efforts in reclaiming young men and women. The Hon. T. W. Hislop, Mayor of Wellington, in the absence of Mrs. Hislop, through illness, addressed the gathering. He said nothing could be higher or nobler than the union’s work in the reclamation of the waifs and strays who had fallen hv tho way. The Rev. F. W. Isitt, on behalf of the Temperance Alliance, expressed the certainty that the work of the convention would be effectively carried out, and the object They had in view would be accomplished in the course of a very few years. The Rc-v. W. J. Williams, president of the Council of Churches, said the Women’s Christian Temperance Union was a powerful fighting arm in the troops of progress. The exertions of devoted women in the cause of temperance were a great aid to the cause of religion. Messrs A. R. Atkinson and It. A. Wright, M.P., also spoke in support of the -work of the union. Mrs. Cole, qf Christchurch, president of the New Zealand Union, in returning thanks, congratulated the temperance party upon the success which had attended its efforts at the last local option poll. The delegates had almost hoped to see the bars already closed in Wellington, but they were confident this was only a question of time. The union had tried long enough to get nd of barmaids; now they were endeavoring to get rid of the bars themselves.