“DANGEROUS”

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 291, 21 November 1936, Page 5

“DANGEROUS”

TRAINING OF YOUTH. LIKE FASCISM. Sh al ford Presbyterian Minister’s Views. Press Association —Copyright. Christchurch, Last Night. “I think this is one of the most dangerous and most insidious motions ever brought before a Presbyterian Assembly,”’ said the Rev. J. Paterson, Wanganui, at (lie Presbyterian General Assembly to-night, when a proposal for a compulsory scheme of training in citizenship was under discussion. The proposal, whicli was put forward of the social relationships committee, was that the Government should be requested to introduce a compulsory citizenship training scheme for young people up to (lie age of 21, with the military element excluded, and to include physical culture, civics and moral instruction. Mr. Paterson said the world to-day was full of parasites who were afraid to think, and he looked with horror at any proposal to impose stereotyped tanking upon the youth of the country. ”1 do not think anything could ultimately destroy a nation so quickly as a dogmatic system of thinking; imposed on our young people by dogmatic teaching and Government officials,” he added. “As a church we for individual thought, and I «L?not understand a Presbyterian Assembly giving this proposal even two minuter of its time. It

is the very thing tint Bolshevism and Fascism are doing to dominate, mould and control the thought of their youth. What the world needs to-day is not discipline, but adventure and pluck to go out and take a risk in life, both in acting and thinking.” Mr. Smith in reply said it was impossible to have liberty without discipline. The danger in New Zealand was that the young people would not think at all. There must be some balance between the extremism of individualism and that of State Socialism. The debate was adjourned.