of speech should accomplish much more. The prospects in New Zealand are great for future ingathering.

Immediately after the convention was over a flying trip was made to Wellington to check the branch office, and ways and means were worked out for further expansion. Then the brothers flew to Christchurch, where a public meeting had been arranged for Wednesday night. Not many of the witnesses of Jehovah had returned to this large city on the South Island, as many traveled by car and boat and some were on their holidays. So probably there were not more than a hundred of the 130 publishers in Christchurch in attendance at the Wednesday night meeting, but even so the total attendance came to 257. The people were very much interested in the thoughts expressed and it is believed that this meeting will aid the local congregation to grow still more because of the interest aroused by the advertising and by the lecture itself.

New Zealand is a beautiful country. Flying from the northern part to the southern part gives one an opportunity to see a great variety of scenery, snowcapped mountains, cone-shaped, the sea, rugged hills and green pasture. Just to the west of Christchurch is a range of mountains referred to as the Southern Alps, and away to the south, it is said, the terrain is some of the most beautiful in the world, with fiords, mountains and luxuriant growth. Of course, New Zealand is a great sheep country and it is a common sight to see these peaceful animals roaming over the hills. It makes one think of Jesus’ words, ‘Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, and these also I must gather.’ The gathering work goes on in New Zealand all to the honor and glory of Jehovah’s name.

Clergyman Thanks God for Jehovah’s Witnesses

Toward the end of September, 1955, the Watch Tower Society received the following letter from a Baptist clergyman in New York city.

“Dear Brothers:

“It gives me great pleasure to write these few lines and I trust that they will also bring to you some pleasure. My sole purpose in writing is to thank God that I have found the truth. Let me make myself clear, I am not a member of your Society as yet. But I am a minister and have between seven and nine churches that I serve. About two years ago I met Mr. J. M——, and he spoke to me about this truth. Being a minister I listened and invited him to come to my home. As I heard him talk I realized that I knew very little; my people, however, did not know that. My training had been chiefly in the dramatic sphere and from an emotional standpoint and was based on a theology that does not mean much to me now.

“I had a number of your books and I studied ‘Let God Be True’. To sum it up, I am now a black sheep among the Baptist clergymen who held their convention a few weeks ago in Tennessee. But my people say that my sermons are very good—but so unusual, and they are requesting that I hold Bible studies with them, which I am doing to the extent possible.

“In conclusion I again want to thank God for you. And may he continue to bless such men as J. M——. [Signed]”

The Extent of Materialism’s Growth

Dr. Albert Wiggam’s “Let’s Explore Your Mind” column, syndicated in many American papers, asked the question: “Do men’s wants increase faster than their necessities?” It answered: “It is estimated that a century ago the average man had 72 wants, of which 16 were regarded as necessities. Today, the average man is estimated to have 474 wants, 94 of which are regarded as necessities. A century ago, 200 articles were urged upon the average man by salesmanship—but today there are 32,000 articles which require sales resistance. Man’s necessities are few—his wants, infinite.” Has your spiritual growth come anywhere near to equaling your increasing material wants?