THE CHURCH AND EDUCATION

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 21034, 9 December 1933, Page 24

THE CHURCH AND EDUCATION

PRESBYTERIAN TRAINING PROGRESS IN NEW ZEALAND (SPBOIAIiI/T WRITTEN FOR THE PBESS.) [By the Rev. Alan 0. Watson, M.A.] New Zealand has closed its first pioneering period. Its short life of 80 years or so has been marked by successful efforts to wrest a living from the soil. This has been its most distinctive feature. Consequently the spiritual and cultural life of the young community has come under the shadow of economic necessity, and the utilitarian ideal has been paramount. People compelled to earn a living have not time always to learn the art of living, and self-criticism compels the thought that in our second pioneering period, now beginning, we must begin to learn the arts of civilised life.

For these reasons it is not apparent that the Church and education have any close connexion, especially among a people who have attended schools provided for by the 1877 Education Act with its "free, compulsory, and secular" education. We live close to the soil, but as yet we have not thrust our roots very deep in the soil of tradition. We have inherited many of the traditions of Great Britain, but these, away from their native soil, look different, and coming as they do from England, Scotland, Ireland, they have not combined to form a distinctively New Zealand tradition. This will come. In the meantime the several traditions represented in this Dominion affect one another, rubbing out distinctions, and tend to lose their historical connexions and significance. It is well to recapture and- reaffirm some of the guiding principles of the men who laid the foundations on which we are now attempting to build. Pioneer Tradition. An important section of the early settlers came from Scotland and Northern Ireland, and brought with them a strong church and educational tradition. This section is now represented by nearly onethird of the population of New Zealand. The Presbyterian pioneers were the heirs of an unbroken tradition from the time of the Reformation, and acknowledged the intellectual and spiritual leadership of John Calvin in Geneva and John Knox in Scotland. It is by no accident or chance that the countries in which the Reformed Church is strongest have been remarkable for their emphasis upon education. "Churches and schools, good libraries, books and printing presses are worth more than all the armies, arsenals, alliances, and treaties in the world," declared Count John of Nassau in 1594. The strength of the national life of Holland, Hungary, and Scotland among others, is largely explained by the words of this son of the Presbyterian Church. The Reformed Church is based upon the Word of God. Where the Word is preached and the Sacraments administered there is the Church. Preaching became a new, important, and influential feature of European life. The first demand was for educated preachers. Yet in order that there should be an intelligent appreciation of preaching, it was necessary also to educate the people. The Church is based on the Word. The Word is preached by an educated ministry. An educated ministry requires an educated people. This was the logic of the argument and of the situation. Thus it is that Calvin and Knox are among the makers of modern education. With the rise of the modern nationstate and the spread of the idea of the corporate or totalitarian state, most of the work of education has been taken from the Church and given to the community organised as the political state. .... ■ Such is the tradition and historical background of the first Presbyterian settlers in New Zealand. Very early they began to put into pi actice the inherited principles of their faith. Their first act was the establishment of a Theological Hall for the training of students for the ministry. For more than 60 years this hall in Dunedin has been sending out a steady stream of trained men, and to-day the vast majority of the ministers in the country are New Zealand-trained men. The Church of Otago, true to tradition, concerned itself also with university education, and at the present time the salaries of four of the professors of the University of Otago are paid out of the funds of the Otago Church Synod. At a later date Knox College, a magnificent residential college for university male students of all faculties and Christian communions, was established. Knox is modelled on the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, and with its excellent system of tutorials is very much more than a hostel. There is no doubt that the time will come when Presbyterian laymen of vision and wealth will realise the national importance of having a similar institution established in Christchurch, and attached to Canterbury College. Calvin College would be a most appropriate name. In Dunedin also there is a residential college for women, St. Margaret's. Secondary Education. In more recent years the Church has turned its attention to second-

ary education. Growing dissatisfaction with the uniformity and secularly of the national system of education has led to the establishment of Church schools. These are St. Cuthbert's (girls) in Auckland, lona and Sol way (girls) in Hawke's Bay, and Wairarapa, Scots (boys) and Queen Margaret (girls) in Wellington, Columba (girls) and John McGlashan (boys) in Dunedin, and St. Andrew's, Christchurch, so well and favourably known in this city. While ijone of these colleges has achieved the age or importance of Scots, Melbourne, with its 1000 boys (the second largest school in the Empire) or Scots, Sydney, yet some of them have justified their existence and give promise of permanence. The future of education in New Zealand is difficult to predict, but whatever happens, the Church will continue to proclaim the need for variety in unity, and the absolute need for educating for the whole of life and not a part of life, as is done in our present system, which is itself a denominational system of the sect called "secularism." If, as seems likely, the political conflict of the future will be between the ideals of the corporate state (as in Fascism) and democracy (as in Great Britain) the Church in all her communions will have the important function of asserting the iinaL worth and significance of the individual.