DANGER OF PAGANISM.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 163, 3 April 1908, Page 4

DANGER OF PAGANISM.

ST VTEAIEKT by bishop neligan. . (BY , TELEdltAl'II.'-— PjtESS ASSOCIATION.) ' ' , • •_ ■' Auckland, April 2. . Jli. L. J. Bagnall, .chairman-'of tlio Auckland;: Education Board, strongly resents Bishop' Neligan's remarks in -an .addross in England, suggesting there :is danger ■of •paganism in the' country districts' of Now Zealand and blaming the- State '-secular system of education for it. He states that the are a gross exaggeration. Preaching to a crowded congregation at St. Stephen's Church, West-bourne. Grove, London, .the Anglican- Bishop of Auckland ,(Dr. Neligan) took m his subject. '' Christian Imperialism." _ In the -courso of his sermon the Bishop- said there was a real danger of ,the country man becoming-pagan. It was not unfair to .toll tho .story: at; Home, and to ask the> Mother- Church to help her daughter Church with men-and prayers and money; for a few years-longer.' J.t' might bo asked: Why .should there bo any danger-of relapsing;into.paganism? Thero were three .reasons'.;'. Tho chief—" and i mark itfyvell I was a, : Stato system of secular - education. " Oh, my God! " the Bishop exclaimed, "if you could only seethe heathenism which is ■tho'result, of secularism.l' God-forgive tho men and women -in England who -want to secularise tho. schools of England! If you could'only live in tho Dominion, arid see what I hayo.seen." 1 • .'Proceeding!' Bishop Neligan said that''in 0110 instance in his diocese, out of forty-three children only 'fivo know tlio Lord's Prayer. The first reason of, the whit-o man being in danger of paganism was" undoubtedly State secularism in the' schools., Then thorft was the loneliness. and isolation of.tho country settler, and the third reason—-strange-to say —was tho prosperity of'the country. • Bishop Neligan went on to draw graphic pictures of tho . New Zealand sottlers lite in tlio backblocks, and said' tho women'who,, went tlfero with their husbands were . the . grandest women..ono could find. They were women who made one feel proud that 0110 owed 1 allegiance to tlio, British Crown.' How could these women attend to their children ? | They oould not. •