BIBLEIIN SCHOOLS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1665, 4 February 1913, Page 8

BIBLEIIN SCHOOLS.

• Sir,— Mr. Milligan, in your columns, asks, would the 'adoption of tho proposals of tho Bible-in : Schools League any particular' religion?" - I think' it would. A .very largo number of cur Stato schools are officered <by one teacher. If that teacher gives Bible' lssons, children who do. not attend these lessons must be without instruction nt that time. That is '.'subsidising, at the expense of all, of tho religion of some." Secondary' schools usually have larger staffs. There the practice is for tho more highly-placed teachers to give religious instruction,.and to relegate to a junior teacher those children who are .withdrawn from such instruction. These' children,' drawn from, all the classes'of i the school, from the highest to tho lowest, cannot all bo taugnt together,.' so', they".. are put to do some, mechanical work, and so do not have the benefit of ordinary'instructibii.from tho more'experienced teachers. No doubt the samo course would'bo followed in State schools, having more*than one.teacher,, if Bible-teaching in schools were carried. It is very pdSsiblo-that some teachers of. secondary schools wbuld say that l tho 1 teaching of theology.does-not increase the expense of the school, yet when wo find that tho so-called orthodox protestant childron are thus favoured at the expense of Catholics, lows; Unitarians, and'others, it is evident-that this orthodox protestantism is subsidised, at the of the whole community. .Thus, I ventjiro to think, our contention is correct, that to set-the Stato school teachers to teach tho ordinary, proteStant theology would bo a monstrous injustice to thoso who do not accert thatKelburne,- February 1. . '