The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 1888. Juvenile Depravity

Feilding Star, Volume X, Issue 34, 30 August 1888, Page 2

The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 1888. Juvenile Depravity

We do not say that we are either better or worse than our neighbors in the matter of morality of the children now growing up amongst us ; but we do say distinctly that there is great room for the sphere of usefulness of the Puhlic, und Sunday, schools being extended. There was evidence enough in the Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday that, notwithstanding all the advantages of free State education which are offered to parents, there are many who do not avail themselves of them. In place of having their children educated and brought up in a manner to make them goo 4 and useful members of society, their families are allowed to run wild, and remain as ignorant as the beasts that perish, with no guides but their own desires and passions. The end of such a system can easily be prognosticated ; and we have no hesitation in saying that where children are allowed to graduate in depravity the3 f will, as surely as night follows day, end as criminals and felons. In our opinion this objectionable state of tLiugs can be entirely changed by the compulsory clauses of the Education Act being rigidly enforced, and by increased exertion on the part of those who have undertaken the cares and responsibilities of Sunday school teaching. We are glad to say that there are in our midst plenty of hard-work-ing Christian and benevolent men and women, who are actuated by the most sincere and honorable desire to further the noble work they have taken in hand, of implauting in the young those lessons in morality which, iv the end, bear such good fruit. It is, however, necessary that tney should do still more, by goiug to the houses of people who do not send their children to Sunday School ; aud, by exercising their persuasive powers, induce them to do so. That they may meet rebuffs, aud sometimes rudeuess, goes without saying ; but, iv the end, they must succeed, inasmuch as their cause is not only an unselfish, but a good one.