COLLEGE DELEGATES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 54, 1 September 1944, Page 3

COLLEGE DELEGATES

CONFERENCE IN WELLINGTON

A conference of delegates from the Presbyterian colleges of New Zealand was held last week at Scots College. The following schools were represented:—lona College, Havelock North, S'Qlway College, Masterton, Queen Margaret College and Scots College, Wellington, St. Andrew's College, Christchurch, and Columba College and John McGlashan College, Dunedin. Mr. T. C. Brash, Moderator-de-signate of the Presbyterian General Assembly, was chairman.1 Mr. A. Leslie Wall, chairman of the Board of Governors of Scots College, welcomed the delegates. Dealing with the history of Presbyterian' education m New Zealand, he paid a tribute to the work of the Hex. Alexander Whyte. It was hoped that the schools of today would continue to strive after the ideals envisaged by such pioneers as ,Mr. Whyte and Dr. James Gibb, and that the work of the Presbyterian colleges would rank equal in importance with the other departments of the Church. ' Mr. J. B. Mawson, Rector of St. Andrew's College, delivered the opening aadress, which dealt with the aims of the church school and its place in the present-day educational system. Mr. Mawson prefixed his remarks by quoting from the memorandum addressed to the Minister of Education by the Association of the Heads of the Registered Schools, in which the case for religious instruction in schools was sum. mcd up. The main points were that the instability in our ideas in education was due largely to a lack ot ■ a real philosophy of education which m a Christian community must necessarily include emphasis upon Christian truths and principles, and tnat the problems arising out of the present world, struggle could be solved only by the application of such principles m daily living by people m all walks of life. In dealing with' the possibility of further developing religious instruction, Mr. Mawson considered that the only alternative apart from the Bible-in-schools system was the one which had been adopted, namely, the institution of schools under the auspices of the Church, in which the aim was to develop all sides of the personality and to perpetuate the ideals lof Christian living and sound learning. Mr. Mawson claimed that it-was also desirable to open the minds of ™lV° Ut£ + t0 raethodor «ght judgment and to some understanding of jments. polltlCd1' and economic moveIn a later address to the conference WS»W was really seeking was school? with truly religious education as the r mam function; schools in which the religious education of the children was a ma ter.for the corporate life ofThJ school as a whole. She stressed thl ™lv* of school worship and Maimed that the whole atmosphere in which the work of the-school was conducted SSht din? On ts e spirit which Uwas Drought into such worship.