HEATHENS ?

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 800, 10 February 1909, Page 4

HEATHENS ?

••WE'RE RAISING THE," SAYS MR GRAY. SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN MATAURA. [per press association.] Gore, February 9. At a meeting of the Mataura Presbytery to-day, the Sunday School committer reported that out of ' lo?8 scholars, only 231 were presented for examination, and the results showed a lack ot .scriptural knowledge. - Only five out of 194 gained 80 per cent, marks, and 88 gained 40 per cent. A large percentage however passed in catechism, proving that lack of intelligence was not the cause of failure. During a discussion. Rev. A. Gray Merk) declared: "We are raising a generation of heathen." "In reply to a suggestion that the remedy lay in scriptural te.iching _ '■ the public schools, there was, he said, no hope of getting religious instruction in schools while the present Government remained in power. The opinion was generally expressed that ministers should: take advantage of tho facilities for giving religious instruction after hours, and a committee was appointed to fully report on the Sunday schools question at a future meeting.