The Waimate Advertiser. THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1809.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume II, Issue 17, 6 July 1899, Page 2

The Waimate Advertiser . THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1809.

The function celebrated at the High School recently of presenting 1 the prizes to the successful scholars had interest added to it by the presence o£ members of the Ministers' Association and the distribution of prizes on their behalf to certain successful scholara. This is not the first occasion on which such prizes have been given, and it reflects credit on the Ministers' Association, not forgetting the teachers who voluntarily devote a certain portion of their time to the teaching of Christian truths. Mr Pitcaithly and his staff earn the gratitude of this community for the voluntary burden which they have undertaken, light and agreeable though the task may beThe rector of our school is a boy among boys and a man among men, and when the inevitable cl-iy comes for severing his connection with this school, there will be few persons, if any, who will not view that event with regret. The rector, as the head of the staff and an example to them is entitled to every credit then for assisting the Ministers 1 Association. What we wish to ask ; is the question whether we ' are doing enough for our children in regard to their religious education. Of late years we have heard very little of the Bible in Schools agitation and the national system of education seems. to have reached 1 such a point of perfection that the community as a whole does not care to touch or tamper with it- From the educational standmatter what the cost, that their point only, no doubt the present system,, with the 'exception of the

question of individual passes, is extremely admirable, but there is a feeling abroad that if the Church is to maintain its influence among its people it must make a greater effort to bring up its youth in an atmosphere of religion than is done at present. A few minutes' Bible lessons in a public school, and the short -j:im,e spent at Sunday schools on Sunday is not sufficient to engraft the religious sentiment on young and thoughtless minds. A certain habit of thinking and acting aightly must be induced to develop ihe highest type of honourable men and women — and habits must be acquired in childhood, not in middle or advanced age. It is in the period of childhood and youth that firm beliefs take root, nat in adult life which is characterised by a gradually increasing manifestation of selfsatisfaction, illustrated so frequently by the difficulty of teaching elder] y people oi 1 inducing thorn to change their way 3. It is only right to say that these roaiarks apply to the Profcostant Churches — for the Rom in Catholic Chueeh with commendable foresight has onMned that its children shall be brought up in an atmosphere of religion, no education and religion will go hand in hand. We are viewing tlie question merely as the policy of two churches, and we ask which of these two is most likely to make for stability, power, and influences in the future ? Which, as regards its own church shows the greater wisdom ? It i s a subject worth pondering over.