THE MORALS OF THE YOUNG: A MAGISTRATE’S VIEWS

New Zealand Tablet, 4 August 1921, Page 33

THE MORALS OF THE YOUNG: A MAGISTRATE’S VIEWS

the discussion concerning the morals of the young, tit the meeting of the Primary School Committees’ Association on Wednesday evening (says the New Zealand Herald, Auckland), was based upon an address given before the hotary Club by Mr. L. C. Cutten, S.M. Some further explanation of these remarks is given by Mr. Cutten, who was speaking in his capacity as president of the Young Citizens’ League. ‘"I think the interpretation of my remarks at the Rotary Club when appealing lor the support for young people s institutions such as the Young Citizens’ League and the boy scouts, quoted in the Herald report of the Primary Schools Association meeting, may give a slightly wrong impression,” said Mr. Cutten yesterday. “I did not emphasise juvenile immorality; I spoke of juvenile irresponsibility, and 1 spoke strongly of immorality among adults, which 1 said sometimes surprised.—even if it could not shock—a, magistrate. I should not like it to be thought that I said there was a low moral tone in our schools. My experience and my knowledge of many teachers has given me a different view. The success of our New Zealand system of education has, in my opinion, depended upon the high tone of its teachers, and had it , not been for this factor I do not believe the system would have reached the present time without there being more serious deficiency in the community than we now have. “In my speech to the members of the Rotary Club 1 pointed out that the 19th century was a materialistic age, and that the chief religion of the time was very, largely a search for wealth. On this came the war, which was bound to emphasise existing moral weaknesses. In New Zealand, though our distance from the theatre of the war relieved us of the full weight of some of its effects, we had a turmoil of our own. New Zealand has an excellent education system, but one that is purely secular. This thiows the responsibility of religious training on to \ parents. It may have been all right at the time of its introduction, because the parents of that time had been educated under a different system, but we are now in the second generation under our secular education system, and the parents of to-day have been ‘ educated under it. So far as religious education is concerned, a very large number of the parents of the present day are either incompetent or indifferent. Sunday schools strive to meet the need, but they do not do so. They do not reach all and, moreover, one. hour a week does not suffice to weave into young lives an applied knowledge of their duty to God and their fellows, which is • necessary to have any deep influence in their careers, “To meet this need for some system of character education, supplemental to our secular education system, I asked for every member’s support for the boy scouts, Y M pTPi° - ZenS ’ A? 8 ”’ the iuni ° r division of the y, M.C A the juvenile branches of friendly societies, and all institutions working for your People’s well-being, and for an endeavor to bring the training of such institutions within the reach of all.” 8