LACK OF RELIGION

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 72, 17 December 1937, Page 4

LACK OF RELIGION

Secular Education Blamed for Moral Drift MENACE OF COMMUNISM A charge against the policy that resulted in a purely secular system of education in the State schools of the Dominion was made by Mr H. M. Car _ - bell in a short address to pupils and pareuts at the breaking-up ceremouy of Iona College, Havelock North, last evening. He contended tliat the absence of religion from the school curriculum was, in some measure, the cause of the drift of this country, and of the world as a whole, to Communism, and appealed to his audience to use their utmost endeavour to eheck Ihe spread of the menace, by the intelligeut education of youth. After congratulating the girls on the good year, in which they had maintained their standard of scholastic achievenient, and distinguished themselves in the field of sport, Mr Campbell reviewed the early history of the school, and the men who had founded it, mentioning the names of tke Rev. Mr White, tlie late Mr Hugh Campbell, Mr Archibald McLean, Mr William Cooper, Mr Mason Chambers, and Miss Fraser. "They did all this without the slightest idea of personal gain whatever," he continued. "It may be asked why thece keen businessmen did a work of this character. They did it because, I believe, they could cl early see the trouble that was co.ring on us — that is on us to-day. "I am convinced that mueh of this is due to our public educational system, which is free, compulsory,and seeular — with much emphasis on the secular.

Unless some effort is made to arrest tue completely secular training of the young people, and more trouble is taken to teach the distinetions between right and wrong, I feel that we are heading for more trouble, and' that the old Empire will fall. "To-night you girls sang 'The Yeomen of England' and I want you to think on that. The times when England meant most was during the Teigns of Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria, women rulers. You girls can be a great power for good in the world if you go the right way, and you can do a great deal for your country and Empire. Another song you sang was 'Wake Up', and it is high time that we did wake up — the lot of us. "You have witnessed the trend of affairs to-day. You have seen that our coimtry and the whole world is drifting to Communism? There is no getting away from the fact that Communism is absolutely contrary to all Christian principles. It is a rootingup of al1 that is good. I make an appeal to you to see that it is stopped, and it is only by the teaching of the young people that it can be stopped. If it goes much further, our 2000 years of civilisation and Empire-building will go like chaff before the wind. You who are about to leave the school will realise that you are the oues who will have to get down to it and do it, and do it through the young people. "In conclusion, I would give you the advice to do what is right and you know what is right — to remember the traditions of the school, and to keep up your team work as you have done at school."