SECULAR EDUCATION AND CRIME.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 246, 17 October 1922, Page 6

SECULAR EDUCATION AND CRIME.

fTo tlio Efl!">r.» ! Sir.—ln your issue of the 12th inst the Rev. F. R." Jeffreys is reported to have said: "It was appalling- the number of young men in paol at the present time. | and he thought it was due to the lack of religious training in schools and parental training." It is a pity ha did not look | up our criminal records before making i such a rash statement. If he did he | would find that those who have passed j through our secular schools compare more than favourably with those who ' havo had such religious training. Here are the facts. New Zealand-born prisonets received in our prisons:— j 1901: 15 and under 20, 7"; 20 and under) 25, 19-2; 25 and und«r 30, 147. 1021: j 74, 129, 116. Although the population; of Xew Zealand has increased more than i 50 per cent during the last twenty years ' "the appalling number of young men in gaol" has actually diminished. So much for the value of statements as to the criminality of our children being due to secular education.—l am. etc., j ANTI-HUMBUG, j _