SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS' CONVENTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8878, 12 November 1907, Page 5

SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS' CONVENTION.

The third annual convention of Wairarapa Sunday ; school teachers was held in Masterton yesterdsy, and despite the inclemency of the weather was largely i attended I y teachers from different parts of the Wairarapa. The proceedings opened in the Methodist Sunday schoo'room in the morning with a devotional meeting at 10.30 o'clock. This was followed by an address of welcome by the Rev. J. N. Buttle. The Rev. A. T. Thompson read an interesting paper on "Study of the Child Mind." A discussion followed upon junior Bible class work. The practical part of the work among boys was dealt with by Mr J. McGregor, jnr., and that among the girls by Miss Osborne, of Wellington. After lunch the meeting was continued in the Knox Sunday school room. The feature of the afternoon sitting was an exhibition of lesson preparation and lesson teaching by Mr J. CaughJey, M.A., of the Teacher's Training College, Wellington. Mr Caughley took a lesson and very concisely showed how it should be prepared by, teachers. Then with a class present, he ably demonstrated how the lesson should be imparted. In the evening a public meeting was held in Knox Church. Mr D. McGregor, snr., presided, and, in the course of a tew remarks, he urged the proper training of Sunday school teachers, and the appointment of duly qualified men and women for such positions. He also impressed upon the teachers the necessity of teaching the young by example as well as by instruction./ "The claims of the' Sunday school on parents" was discussed by Mr J. McGregor, jnr., in a very able address. Nowadays, he said, we found all kinds of commercial enterprise, and every industry in the world united, and the one object' of such unity was the advancement of their own particular affairs. The union that had met that day was for the advancement of a far nobler object, viz., the building up of character. That union comprised mothers, fathers arid teachers, to whom werfe entrusted the instruction and bringing up of children. In his opinion all the privileges which women enjoyed to-day, such as the franchise, seats on governing bodies, etc., were as nothing compared with that privilege, entrusted to them by l God, of teaching the young and influencing their minds. In this connection, there was no truer statement than "the hand that roiks the cradle rules the world." The speaker said he wanted fathers and mothers to do more than provide for the teaching of their children; he wanted them to set good examples which would have beneficial results on the'training of the young.

Rev. L. Thompson, M.A., of Carterton, spoke on the claims of the Sunday school on the church. He said "the Sunday school work was yearly demanding and receiving more attention as it was recognised that the child of to-day was the citizen of to-morrow, and ' how important its education was in view of its wondrous possibilities. The Sunday school might be termed the nursery of the church, and to neglect it would be fatal. The chairman expressed thanks to the speakers and appreciation of their remarks, after which the meeting concluded with the singing of a hymn.