WAR, SCHOOLS, AND RADIO

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 324, 7 September 1945, Page 12

WAR, SCHOOLS, AND RADIO

"The Listener" Interviews A Bishop

"LJNLESS we abolish war we will wipe ourselves out... . I am trying to see how human life can be most effectively illumined by the Christian faith. Without that faith I do not see how we can keep civilisation. . . . The great problem to-day is the problem of total war. If war is going to be between whole nations, I cannot see how we can draw lines as to what can and what cannot be used in war. There are no Marquess of Queensberry rules." The Rt. Rev. John P. Moyes, Bishop of Armidale, New South Wales, who was in Wellington the other day, made these observations to a staff reporter of The Listener in an interview. He was on his way to give one of the addresses at Christ’s College, Christchurch, where a conference of the National Council of Churches was being held. One of his reasons for coming to New Zealand, the Bishop told us, was to acquire all the information he could about the New Zealand Christian campaign. "We have not a national council of, churches in Australia, but we hope to set one up in the next few months," he said. The Bishop is no stranger to the Dominion. He visited Christchurch in 1939 as Diocesan Missioner. In\ 1943 he went to America as one of the two Australian delegates to the Princeton Conference of the Federal Council of Churches held to consider the Basis of a Just and Durable Peace. While there he met Dean Warren, of ,Christchurch. (a

As English as Christchurch We had heard that Armidale, halfway between Sydney and Brisbane, with its 10,000 people, considered itself as English as Christchurch, New Zealand, does. It. claims an English climate. But its chief fame is educational. It has a university college which, within a few years, the Bishop expects, will have its own charter as an independent university. At present it has 250 students, but this number will probably double itself in two years. Then Armidale will be what some now call it, the Cambridge of Australia. Bishop Moyes is keenly interested in education, and is proud of the fact that Armidale has a teachers’ training college with 400 students, while two large boarding schools connected with the Church of England have 480 students between them. All of these, except 20, are boarders. The Catholic Church conducts a big secondary school for boys, the Presbyterian Church has a secondary school, and there is a State high school drawing its pupils largely from the north of New South Wales. All told there are 1800 young people in secondary education in Armidale. Three primary schools have an attendance of 1500 children; and so there is the unusual proportion of more than 3000 students at school out of a total population of 10,000. Though sociology, psychology, and theology make up most of the Bishop’s reading, he has time to interest himself in the progress and welfare of his city and district. Armidale, he says, is a very (continued on next page) $$$ $$$

(continued from previous page) strong sheep-growing area, producing the * best Merino wool in Australia. Drought never visits the table lands, and though the winters are severe, there is rarely a shortage of grass. Large sections of good, black soil are fertile enough for the growing of the soya bean and potatoes. Church Broadcasting In view of the recént debate by the Wellington Anglican Synod on church broadcasting, we asked Bishop Moyes what he thought about this branch of radio-he is chairman of the Social Questions Committee of the Church of England in Australia. "It is felt that not many churches, by reason of the manner of their services, the ability of the choir and, perhaps, the preacher himself, are suitable for broadcasting, which requires a special technique," he said. ‘There is of course a tendency to choose the church from which a broadcast can best be given. But there seems to be no doubt that people in the country want to feel that they are in church when they listen, I think there would be an artificiality about it if the service was conducted in a studio." In his younger days the Bishop played grade cricket in Adelaide. His brother, A. G. Moyes, played inter-State cricket and was in the A.I.F. Eleven in the last war when it played against England. H»= is now on the editorial staff of the Sydney Sun. Another brother is a captain in the Navy and also a well-known | cricketer. It is interesting to know what a Bishop’s hobbies are, Some are great gardeners; one New Zealand Archbishop | was an expert at fashioning ornaments with high quality precision tools. Bishop Moyes reads, as we have mentioned, prolifically, but for pure recreation, he: enjoys best playing the piano and. singing. y mG Sw .