“PROBLEM OF THE CHILD”

Taranaki Daily News, 11 October 1929, Page 11

“PROBLEM OF THE CHILD”

RESPONSIBILITY OF CHURCH ARCHBISHOP’S SPEECH TO SYNOD. “SHOULD GET DOWN TO BEDROCK.’* (By Wire —Special to News.) Auckland, Last- Night. “We want to eease talking and get down to bedrock, and bedrock in this question is the home.” Thus Archbishop AveYill summed up “The Problem of tho Child” in continuing His charge to tho Diocesan Synod in St. Mary’s Cathedral this morning. Pointing out that there were thousands of children, in the country who had not been baptised and. were receiving no religious instruction whatsoever, the archbishop asked if the church was alive to the problem and was it really facing it. He said it was estimated that there were 90,000 children in New Zealand who were receiving no religibus teaching.-. “We have not got very .far toward a. solution of the problem with all our academic discussions and conferences, and it is not particularly helpful to pass pious resolutions deploring youthful delinquency,” said tlie archbishop. What could they expect from children who received no religious training at' home and none at school, and were not even encouraged to pick up the crumbs available in the Sunday school?

“Because the fetish of free secular and compulsory eaucation has caught tho popular imagination and provided a, popular political slogan the church has been unsuccessful in its efforts to obtain the reading or tho teaching of Holy ‘ Scripture in. the State, primary schools,” said the archbishop. “For years we have endeavoured to get a definite acknow- ■■ ledgement of the- Almighty God. We are not so foolish as to suppose that the millennium would be iri sight even if the State amended the Education Act and provided for education of the whole < child by recognising the value and importance of the spiritual side ,-of the child’s nature, but we do make bold to say that children would be far better equipped to face the temptations and h pitfalls of life if they had some solid reason and foundation for living a moral life and some nobler' vision of the meaning and tho opportunities of life.” Tho executive of the Bible in State Schools League was not submitting its Bill +o the present Parliament, said the archbishop, but was- still carrying on its work and would endeavour ,to secure - such amendments to the Hon. G. M. Thomson’s Bill, which advocated the - ■ Victorian system, that it might to a large extent cover the same ground as the church’s own Bill; “As far as the church is concerned, , we have a solemn responsibility to guard our methods from any appearance of evil, especially our .methods of gaining adherents or raising funds for the sup- . port of church work,” . said the archbishop. “The end does riot justify the means, and laxity in this direction on the part of the church may convey sug- „ gestions and sanctions to .the minds of the young which, will sow the seeds for a deadly harvest in their lives. The duty of the church is to bear witness to the ideals and standards of Christ and not to make compromises with the world.” INTEREST IN CHILD WELFARE. L ' PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER’S VIEW, (By Wire —Special to Neves.) Auckland, Last Night. The frequency of bequests to social service organisations throughout New Zealand was claimed by the Rev. G. Budd, speaking at- the annual meeting of the Auckland Presbyterian Orphanage and Social Service Association, to indicate the peculiar present day . interest in child welfare. - \ Mr. Budd said he hoped such legacies would continue, with perhaps a wider basis, as a great deal of work was being done for children who needed financial help in addition to orphanage work and. that help was not being received to the extent which it might be. He referred to the religious framing of children’s minds in a wider sphere than that of orphanages. It would be , a magnificent, thing, ho suggested, for people to make wills leaving all they possessed to tho Auckland Presbytery for expenditure on children’s work generally in this city, and so enable, the development of a new sphere of activity.