The Public Questions Committee :

In 1917 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand established its Public Questions Committee "to consider any great public question on which the Assembly ought to give a deliverance, to draft such deliverance, and submit it to the Assembly for consideration." This Committee subsequently absorbed the Temperance (anti-drink) Committee which had originally been established in 1873.

In 1928, the Public Questions Committee absorbed the "Bible in Schools" and "League of Nations" Committees, and in 1935, a separate International Relations Committee split off, charged with considering issues of war and peace. From 1941, the committee participated in the ecumenical Inter-Church Committee on Public Affairs.

Issues discussed by the Presbyterian Public Questions Committee from its inception until the present day include war, moving and talking pictures, gambling, alcohol, conscientious objection, the sanctity of Sunday, wrestling, petrol rationing, the 1946 housing commission and building standards, the 1951 waterfront strike, the 1958 rugby tour to South Africa and apartheid, homosexuality, religion and politics, the ethics of heart transplants, the 1981 Springbok rugby tour of NZ, the role of women in the Church and society, pornography, penal reform including the building of Paremoremo Prison, race relations, and electoral reform.

Over the years, a number of prominent citizens such as Sir John Marshall and Sir Arnold Nordmeyer have served as committee members, thus enhancing it's political influence.

In 1977, the Public Questions Committee was amalgamated with its equivalent Committee in the Methodist Church to form "The Joint Committee on Public Questions".

In 1999 the Joint Methodist - Presbyterian Public Questions Committee agreed to the participation of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and the Associated Churches of Christ. In 2000 they formally become partners and a new Committee known as "The Churches' Agency on Social Issues" was formed.

The Presbyterian Church Archives holds the records of the records of the Public Questions Committee including minutes and annual reports from 1917 and manuscript records from 1927 to the late 1990's. We would be happy to give advice on material which would form a good basis for research or academic study.