MODERN YOUTH DECRIED

Taranaki Daily News, 4 December 1926, Page 22

MODERN YOUTH DECRIED

NOT AS GOOD AS YEARS AGO. Auckland, Dec. I. Comparisons between the actions and character of young people of 60 years ago and those of to-day were made ■by speakers at an old parishioners’ reunion held in connection with the diamond jubilee of All Saints’ Church, the comparisons being generally distinctly unfavourable to modern youth. An eloquent plea for stricter observance of the Sabbath was made by Airs. W. Calder, widow of the late vicar of the parish. The children of to-day had not the self-controlled and disciplined state of mind to get up in time for Communion at 8 a.m., but instead they daw. died away the morning and arrived at 11 a.m. Airs. Calder said she still remembered the shocked expression of a girl long ago who confessed that she had washed her hair instead of going to church. Modern girls had no hair to wash, but instead they washed silk stockings and then they went for a picnic somewhere. God was not given a thought. Going to church was not salvation itself, but the disciplining would stand in good stead to those who practised it. If going to church was repugnant because it meant missing a certain amount of pleasure, this revealed .a dreadful state of affairs. There was not the slightest reason why children should not be taught to go to church and to think of it pleasantly. The old-fashioned dreary and melancholy form of religion was no longer wanted. Air. J. Stichbury compared the attitude of a young man of 60 years ago with that of the young man of today from a somewhat different point of view. The young man of to-day he said, wanted to have a piano and a costly bedroom suite when he got married, but the speaker Ijjmself when he got married, had no money left for furnishing after paying for ‘the house. He had, therefore, made two chairs out of flour casks, a couch out of a saddle case, a table from a packing case, and a chest of drawers from two large biscuit cases. He was puzzled for a time when a cradle came to be needed, but at length he carried homo a gin case and made a cradle from it. This was his total furniture for some years.