CADET CAMPS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6488, 7 April 1908, Page 6

CADET CAMPS

Celonel Ixitoc3.iv, V.D., commanding tlie State school cadets of New Zealand, in conversation with a “Times” inquirer yesterday, remarked that the Auckland clergy, who had objected to cadet camps on various grounds, were now convinced that the serpent did not enter very frequently into these gatherings. The Auckland clergy objected to the carrying on of cadet camps—(l) Because of the effect they might nave on the moral* of boys; (2) because in camp tho boys were not under parental control; (3) because the boys could not attend Sunday school if they were in camp on the Sabbath; (4) because the church choirs were deprived of tho services of boy choristers. Colonel Loveday has alwa'ys asserted that cadets in camp are controlled a groat deal better than, the average hoy is controlled by his parents/ He holds that it was an insult to suggest that boys would not bo moral in oamp. The boys would much more likely become wicked at school than in camp. . Colonel loveday ehowed a desire tq meet tho wishes of the clergy of Auckland by suggesting that the cadets go into camp on a Monday and strike camp on Saturday. He also promised to orcct a tent and detail an .orderly for the use of any clergyman who might care to see for himself that the boys were good boys. With, quite unusual keenness the clergy took advantage of Colonel Loveday’s offer, and so during the Auckland cadet camp there was a clergyman on the ground all the time. These clerics have. also been unusually frank and appreciative, writing in each instance, congratulating tho Education Department on the boys’ camps, and otherwise showing that the large flock of deadly dragon* they expected to discover in every tent existed only in their own imaginations. In fact, it has been proved once more that the New Zealand boy is a fairly decent specimen, and that the cadet camps are not jn the least likely to make him what tho clergymen suspected ho might be.