BISHOP CLEARY AND THE BIBLE. IN-SCHOOLS LEAGUE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1671, 11 February 1913, Page 3

BISHOP CLEARY AND THE BIBLE. IN-SCHOOLS LEAGUE.

Sir,—Being absent from home, I have only just now (Fobrnary-6) had an opportunity of perusing n letter of ihe organising secretary of tho Bible-in-Schools League, in your issuo of Fobruarv 1. My ret.critio has dropped his alleged "for,f riovnnc(! ; hut, in two sentences of nis letter, ho makes no fewer than four mis-statements in matters of fact He leaves another to bo inferred by readers unacquainted with ijia drastic methods of dealing with inconvenient facts. For sixteen years my reputation for candour has been beforo the public of New Zealand, it is not likely to bo impaired by the mis-statements of a stranger from afar, who (as will soon bo amply shown) is greaay addicted to reckless and incorrect assertion, nnd who has a deep personal interest in disparaging one whom lis finds a particularly awkward opponent. Mean"jno—threo' months after its widespread omcial contradiction—the league, is still circulating tho notorious and grotesque untruth that Tasmanian Catholics accept the Bible-in-schools system "as a happy solution of the religious difficulty." The chief purposo of my present communication is again to direct attention to the failuro of the league and its organiser to attempt any justification of the seven, or more great changes which 'they demand in our existing legislation. Instead, they or _ their organiser have, unfortunately, raised aloft the anti-Popery banner; they have endeavoured to foment in this Dominion that spirit of religious rancour which has wrought so much evil in tho oldest Bible-in-schools Stato of the Commonwealth—that of New South Wales.. In bulky official /voluilies in my possession these deplorable tactics were strongly condemned in the Queensland Parliament on August 17, Septemt>er 1, and October 6, 1910, during tho Bible-in-schools campaign in that State. As a Christian man and ardent lover of this favoured country, I .deeply deplore those efforts of a recentlyarrived stranger to' import sectarian discord into this young land of peace and goodwill. Theso lamentable tactics have, happily, brought deep and widespread contempt on the cause which they were intended to benefit; they have thrown voluminous, life and energy into opposing movements; they may, perhaps, have contributed to the parlous stato into which the league has fallen, according to the recently-published statements of two of the vice-president-s of that organisation. Thero are some people who conld do no worse service to any cause than to advocato it.

As frequently shown by me in full detail, tho league demands (1) the State imparting and (2) the Stato endowment of a sectarian form of "religious instruction" and "general religious teaching," at the common expense of all, including conscientious objectors. (3) Tho Leaguo demands that conscientiously objecting teachers shall bo placed faco to faco with these three alternatives: Proselytism to league views, hypocrisy, or dismissal. (4) The leaguo wants to force, by Act of Parliament, upon the public ■ schools, an odious and disreputable clause,, that,,was devised by wily. Irish prosely-, tisera for the express purpose of "weaning the Irish from tho abuses bf Popery." The league's chief, pamphlet, contains copious official cvidenco of the proselytis-, inp influences exerted by that crafty .conscience clause in .Australia; and the league's organiser boasted,. before tho Presbyterian Assembly, that "32,000 Roman Catholic children, .with hardly an exception, read tho Scripture lessons in, tho, schools" of New South Wales—in other words, that they have been successfully proselytised into violation of the faith and discipline of the Church of their Baptism. The league has, in fact, made it painfully clear that "tho key ; stone" of its demands is an Act of Parliament to enable it to tamper consciences of/dissident children and dissident teachers. By what moral right, does (he league justify "these ,violations of primary rights of . conscience? There are' seven, such knotty .problems for the league to face. It oil alojig avoided, them as. if they, we're the bubonic, plague.—l am, etc., ' .sjj.,: HENRY W. CLEARY, D D, | Bishop'-of Auckland.'' • Gisborne, Februavy"6. >- •• v