The Wairarapa Daily FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1891.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3916, 18 September 1891, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1891.

Some ministers of religion have asked permission from the Masterton School Committee to give an extra half hoar's instruction to the children attending the school. There is ome natural objection to the proposal on the part of the headmaster, viz., that if the minds of the children are occupied with a special subject of this kind, they will be apt to give less attention to the ordinary studies of their classes, and the result of the annual competitive examination will be less brilliant. There is perhaps, too, an objection on the part of parents, viz., that children already spend a sufficient number of hours in attending tchool, and in travelling to and from it, and an increase of even one half hour is likely to be regarded as a grievance. These are the main arguments against thej proposal, while in its favor it may be urged that under our purely secular | system of education children are! profane, vulgar, and slangy, posses-1 sing little or no reverence for man or mortal. They may pass a brilliant examination in their standards, but if they learnt only half what they acquire in book knowledge, and twice as much as they pick up in good manners, parents would be apt to say »' thank God J" There is a bad tone about the New Zealand school boy which ought to be tempered at any cost or any sacrifice, and we are glad to see that Ministers of religion recognise that there is a mission work to be dons amongst the foul-tongued boys of our public school.