PARENTAL CONTROL.

Bruce Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 72, 13 September 1917, Page 5

PARENTAL CONTROL.

It is fortunate for the girl that she had a young-man to protect her (even if he was a post office official) from such as " Curfew's " class, who would be better occupied in minding their own business. —I am, etc., H. J, Riddell.

(To the Editor). Sir, —I nbtioed in your last issue a letter relating to a young post office employee and a young girl coming from the back door of the post office. I have come round from the back door of the post office at night after hours, and I have been in the exchange-room. Per" haps " Curfew " would like to know what I was doing there; I only hope he was enlightened why the girl was there. I somehow think the motto " Evil doers will be evil minded," must apply to " Curfew," If he had any consideration for the good of those pair he would have complained to the postmaster before rushing into print. The hour was between 11.15 and 11,30 p.m.; now don't you think, Sir, " Curfew " would have been much better at home at his fireside resting his inquisitive brain, or, better still, in his bed, where all respectable people (who are not working) should be. Why does not " Curfew " try for municipal honors and bring in his by-laws, or try to get into Parliament? Then he could pass an Act to make us parents have our families in at 8 p.m.—l am, etc, Charwoman,

(To the Editor). Sir,—You have referred the subject of " Curfew's" letter to the local clergymen, and as one of them I take the opportunity of expressing my opinions. You refer to the moral and religious in* struction given by the church in its own and in the State schools. May I point out that all the moral and religious ins struction given in the Btate schools and churches is quite inadequate for the proper training of young people; one hour per week in the church and 20 minutes per week in the school cannot accomplish much. The blame lies at the doors of the parents, who are the divinely-ap* pointed instructors; the church has neither the opportunity nor the authority : her function is to say to the parents «' Train your children," and she does it to her utmost. To my personal knowledge the subject has been drilled home in our churches for some years, Yeb look at the state of things to-day. Few peopla have their children under proper control; fewer exercise what control they possess by keeping their children at home in the evenings, or accompanying them when they are out: and fewer still know where their young people are at nights, and whom they are with, They comfort themselves with that vain and foolish notion that they know their children and can trust them. The very children smile amongst themselves at the vanity of it. If they made certain where their young people Bpent their leisure hours, and with whom, and then ( trusted them, there would be some sense in it. As it is, the lax parental control, the inadequate moral and roligious instruction, the predominance of the morbid sexual novel and other suggestive literature, and the baneful influence of picture palaces are responsible for producing a generation with a defective moral sense. Some have no moral sense at all. Personal pleasure and personal profit are the ruling standards of conduct. Duty, right.and wrong have no place in their consffleration. They are just non« morsjl,/ and are not to blame ; they are the product of our time. It is with pleasure that one hears some parents Awaking up. and are determined to sacrifice themselves in staying at home to train and entertain their children. The whole question can be solved by the parents and by no one else. The Church has no authority un* less backed by the parents, and my exi perience is that a minister is not thanked for either advising or warning parents. He usually brings a hornet's nest about his own head, and the young people regard him as their natural enemy for trying to limit their pleasures.—l am, etc., S. Robertson Orr.