Subsequently the Council became interested in immigrant welfare and has undertaken such tasks as arranging for chaplains to sail in immigrant ships, forming a joint committee of organisations responsible for refugees, absorbing refugees from China into the community, and obtaining permits for wives to join their Chinese husbands already in New Zealand. The Council also took a leading part in the reorganisation of prisoners' aid work. More recently its chairman was appointed to the Royal Commission on Licensing, and its two nominations for the Conscientious Objection Committee on Compulsory Military Training were also accepted.

In recent years prison reform, television, road safety, film censorship, and care of the aged have become the Council's major concerns.

by Cecil Gibson Young (1887–1964), late Dominion Secretary, Inter-church Council on Public Affairs.