The Rev. J. J. Cairney (Moderator of the Dunedin Presbytery) presided, being supported by the Rev. Graham H. Balfour (president of the Board of Governors), the Rev. W. Gray Dixon, and Mr A. G. Butchers (principal of the college). The proceedings were commenced with the singing of the One Hundredth psalm after which the Rev. Cairney led in prayer and read a portion of Scripture. The Rev. Mr Gray Dixon also engaged in prayer, asking for God’s blessing on the new building and on all connected with it today in the future. The chairman said that the Church, from its earliest history, had been definitely associated with religious instruction and training and those who watched the trend of affairs had come to realise how needful it was that if young people were to grow up God-fearing, true citizens it could only be as they were trained in the knowledge of the truth as it was revealed in God’s Word.
Allied confidence
Mr Lloyd George has, in a message to the Prime Minister of Italy, summed up the war situation in a cheerful, measured judgement.
"Thanks," he says, "to the brilliant leadership of Marshal Foch and the Allied generals, and the splendid valour and enthusiasm of all the Allied troops, the German armies are now in retreat."
Mr Lloyd George expresses the conviction that "this is the beginning of the end of the dominance of German militarism."
The confidence thus expressed is growing daily in the Allied countries. It is based on the consistently encouraging reports from the battle-front. The Allies are vigorously maintaining their grasp of the initiative, and are sustaining the pressure of their attacks in a manner which must be sorely exercising the enemy. The Germans are resisting with a stubbornness which is certainly not suggestive of any general weakening of their morale, but between the necessity imposed upon them of endeavouring to check the Allied advance and the expediency of providing for a considerable retreat their plight is distinctly unhappy.
Shirkers surrender
Two military reservists, who have been hiding in the bush near Barrytown for several months, and are said to have been assisted by certain persons, who are well known, with food and shelter, gave themselves up to the military authorities, and were despatched to camp on Tuesday (says the Grey River Argus). It is said the recent sentences inflicted on persons in other parts of the dominion who were found guilty of harbouring military shirkers has been the determining factor in the surrender of these two men.
Women’s work
The other day three maidens were noticed in the vicinity of Puerua cutting a gorse hedge that would have taxed the powers of some men (says the Clutha Leader). Good progress was made at the work. A number of farmers in the Auckland district are employing Jugo Slavs in milking on shares, under permit from the alien employment branch of the Defence Department. Dannevirke possesses an enterprising milkman who now dispenses the lacteal fluid per the medium of the motor car, "manned" by two young women. — ODT, 1.9.1918
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