A Wairarapa School

New Zealand Tablet, 15 July 1909, Page 1089

A Wairarapa School

A recent attack on the Christian Churches, by a rationalistic Jew, at a Wairarapa State school, gives a point to the ' afferism' of Josh- Billings: that some people are like blind mules, ' anxious to kick, but kant tell where/ On a previous occasion we had to pass some strong strictures on sundry savage utterances of that individual in a Wellington secular paper. He must have been both ' anxious to kick,' and reckless as-to where his flying heels struck, -when he chose a distribution of prizes to school-children as the occasion for an attack upon the Christianity of which he knew as little as he apparently does of the decencies that guard the social life of civilised peoples. To suggest, for instance, to a lot of school-children of mixed sexes that some of our Christian customs of church-going are provocative of ' immorality,' is a bit of wanton brutality unpardonable even in one who is notorious for his antics of voice and pen. The wonder is that a Wairarapa newspaper could be found to make itself the sounding-board of such a man on such a theme. It is, in all the circumstances, pleasant to learn that the affair has created :i bit of a buzz, and that there is hot indignation among the" parents of the children who had to sit still under such yapping insults. The remedy is in their own hands—at least, to the extent .of putting it out of the power of such aggressive infidels to outrage apain the faith and the religious sentiments of their children. The incident fur-

nishes a curious comment upon the alleged ' neutrality' of the State school system. The local school committee cannot well leave the matter where it stands.