WHAT WE WANT

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 27, 26 October 1918, Page 8

WHAT WE WANT

Sir—Many people are.asking just now what it is 'that the advocates of church schools really want, and it seems only (air that we should state as definitely as we can what it is.' It can be onswered in. l various ways to suit the mental capacity of varying people. (I)'We want to make God and His righteousness tho ruling power in the soul of the people of this young nation. If that is too much above tho comprehension of those who do not realise its importance, let us put it from the other standpoint. " (2) Wo want to save New Zealand from tho moral and spiritual level that a State system in Germany has brought uniformly on its people. There, you have the final results of a Stato system that makes for. uniformity in a nation, and that has lived under it one generation longer'than we have. If we are. satisfied with our educational system as it is, what means all this commotion that we'read of daily in the Press? ■ Not a day passes bat columns are devoted to educational reform. The truth is that the people are alarmed about it, though they have not yet the 'courage to face the truth fairly and squarely. We have left God out of our scheme, and we are now trying to find a substitute.

. The different denominations realise that, whatever their limitations, outside of themselves there is no other, institution actually and definitely setting God'and His righteousness before tho nation, and 6o they see the necessity of having their own schools in which to do so.

Tho offer mado to tho State under tho liible-in-schools scheme was scornfully rejected before the war, and lit tho beginning. of tho war. Since then wo have taken them at their word, and got busy. Wo aro going to be. busier yet. Already.we have done good work for the State system, and they owo us a debt of gratitude for waking up tho nation to this vital question?

To go on for another generation under the State secular system is to court the ruin of our national life and heritage. Our escape has been a narrow one. The moral and spiritual forces saved us. Let us see to it that those forces are increased and enlarged.—l am, etc., W. F. STENT. Taihape, October 23.