LIFE'S CONDITIONS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 142, 16 June 1923, Page 13

LIFE'S CONDITIONS

NECESSITY FOR INSTRUCTION

PRESBYTERIANS' APPREHENSIONS.

The Prßsbyterian General Assembly's Public Questions Committee has passed a rasolution that, in view of the widespread immorality to which attention has been recently called by tlin Bishop of Willochra, and especially by the grave and weighty letter of Mr. Triggs, chairman of the Commission on Venereal Diseases, published in recent issues of the Wellington newspapers, the committee records its deep dietresa at a condition of affairs so deplorable and its apprehension of the future of a community in which nncleanness of life has become so appallingly common. In a statement, the committee says: "This evil has always been with, us, but there is little doubt that it has been greatly intensified by the war. Since that tragedy, as Dr. Fosdick lias said, every competent witness is aware that wo are on a far lower level than wo were before the war. 'There has been a callapse of charter unprecedented in Europe since the days of the Black Plague.' This is a heavy indictment, but it is based on unchallengeable fact. That conditions are no worse in New Zealand than elsewhere, that in regard to the evil now specially in evidence, New Zealand may be les's guilty than many other lands, is cold comfort. The situation here merits, nay, demands, the most serious consideration not only of every Christian man, but also of every man of good will in the community. The committee earnestly nsks that parents of children, school teachers, and ministers of religion shall face the facts, and realise the immense responsibility resting on them for the impartation of sound moral instruction of the youth committed to their care. The committee does not depreciate the legal constraints—registration of venereal disease and the like—approved of by the medical fraternity, nor the raising of the age of consent advocated by the Society for the Protection of Women and Children. By all means, let us avail ourselves of such help as these proposals may afford. But the question at bottom is not physical or pathological; it is a moral question. The weakening of the sense of parental responsibility and obligations ; the decadence of parental control; the failure of the educational system to make provision for instruction in the truths of the Bible; the erotic taint of the average novel, which knows no sanctions save those of passion; the meretricious quality of many of the picture films—all these are contributing to the deterioration of the moral fibre of the community and especially of its youth. Perhaps, however, the most ominous fact in the present situation is that such public concern as exists is directed mostly to the physical consequences of sin. The cry is • Let us reform not our moral condition, but our sanitary processes. In the end, we shall find that along this lino there is no way out. Legalise restrictions and the spread of knowledge of the physical consequences of sin never yet have delivered any community from moral evil. The remedy, the committee repeats, lies in the home, the school, the church, to all' of which the prevalent immorality of this country makes an immediate profoundly moving appeal." i In a further resolution, the committee deplores the fulness of detail with which cases m the Courts have of late been reported m the daily Press. In the past, it states, the- great majority of the newspapers of the Dominion have had a! honourable record for decency, and presented a- striking contrast to the numerous representatives of the Press in other countries Unhappily, this merit can no longer bo claimed for them A similar deterioration is noted in' the newspapers of Britain-.