SUNDAY CADET CAMPS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 214, 3 June 1908, Page 7

SUNDAY CADET CAMPS.

A DEPUTATION. . STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER FOR ' ....< ; .; , EDUCATION. \,- (bt. TEI.BGEAJU.—Srr.CIiI. COEmsrONDENT.) :■ v v; -- Auckland, June 2. A deputation from the Auckland Ministers 1 Association .waited, upon tho Minister fox .'. Education (the Hon. Geo. Fowlds) tliis morning on the subject of Sunday "cadet camps. • ' The' Rev.' J, Luxford (chairman of the As'sociatiph)' said; ; that, the; .'Association was'-; unaiumc(iisly,'';,9A'^b''dpiiiion : that i Sunday ' cadot '• camps _ werO not. desirable. 'Some divi-' sion of'opinion 'liaid'existedupOn the subject of the camps themselves, biit there was absolute unanimity ill tho condemnation of Sunday camps. devoting: their time to Sunday-school .work'felt: the disorganising' influence. Camp Sunday was generally regard- •' od as" ari : off day, and discipline was relaxed,; i\vitli- the! result that. tho ' boys were likely to get into mischief. Once Sunday lost its' sanctity it ceased to become a day of rest. Many of the ministers belonged to the Defence' Leaguo, and took an active interest in defonce matters, but they one and all' felt it was desirablo that the Minister |for Education shoiild' refuso ■to " countenance Sunday, cadet'camps.- ; •. ;■' ' ■ Tho Piev. W. Gray Dixon- said; ho ..was , very, disappointed.to find that .the.,cadet.encampment at.th6.Thames had lasted over' Sunday.■ He'strongly favoured the cadet movement, and'also the holding of camps, but he was totally opposed to Sunday camps, and urged the MihisteV: to';use his influonce to discouu-. tenance anything'of' tho kind in future. - ;: Mr;''Woolley quoted an occurrence at' New Plymouth some two or three years ago, on 'which occasion lie said there had been a scandal in a Sunday camp;' Some'of tho boys had, in the. exuberance of their spirits, indulged in hakas and similar displays.' Sunday, he urged, should be kept absolutely free for- ,thc v teaching boys and girls in tho 'Surida^rschools. Mr. Fowlds expressed surprise that tho Thames camp had been continued over Sunday, especially after the encampment he]d Papakuia.' Ho said--that he was quite in sympathy with tho deputation, and would go into the" matter as far as"it camo' within his 'power. He'.would promise to discourage to the utmost any movement in favour of Sun-. . day camps. . Young. children should bo at homo on Sundays. "Henceforth," concluded the Minister, "I will undertake that no sane--1 tion shall be given to. Sunday cadet cncampinents." ■