BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1676, 17 February 1913, Page 8

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

A QUEENSLAND TEACHER IN

NEW ZEALAND.

INTERVIEW WITH MISS HALBTEAD. Miss Halstead, who' left for Sydney on Friday by the Ulimaroa, interviewed, 6aid that she had had a very pleasant trip in this country of such great natural wonders, and would be able to carry back to her scholars in Queensland an account of tho thermal regions and other beautiful features of tho Dominion.

Mis 9 Halstead has been, for 12 years a teacher at Brisbane, teaching in the samo school, which has an averago daily- attendance of 1000 children. Asked about Bible in schools, she said that there was a great doal of controversy in Queensland about the system before its introduction, and many difficulties were anticipated. Sho horself had some fears but its introduction was made with so little difficulty that it seemed to come into the school on oiled wheels, and in a week or two sho found that her own fears had been perfectly groundless. Does tho right of entry emphasise sectarianism?

"Certainly not; we don't know what it means. In my school the ministers eomo together on'tho same morning of tho week, tho whole school is assembled as usual, and tho only difference that morning is that the headmaster calls out 'religious instruction,' and tho children, instead of coming to mo or their_ other ordinary teachers, go to their religious instructors, and see no more differenco .in going to them than they would in Coming to us for some other lesson." Does it interfere with tho time-table? "The school hours are just tho samo now; the syllabus had to bo revised. Wo teachers consider that the visits of tho ministers help us in creating a tone in tho schools and bring an enlargement of the children's minds. That the. ministers are welcomed by the children is apparent by their faces, and that they are also welcomed by tho parents is shown by the withdrawals from ministers' visits being so few that they might be counted on your fingers. Ministers' visits are. not more disturbing to the order of the school than tho visits of the doctjrs and dentists, who como to inspect and examine the children periodically." , What about tho Bible lessons and the teachers? '

'1 have 30 follow teachers in my school, I don't know the religions of all of them, but I do know that some of us differ in our religions, but there was not one of us that found the least difficulty with the lesson books. As a matter of fact, I

think everyone of us has welcomed tho substitution of a Scripture reading lesson for some of the matter which is displaced in our syllabus. Here again the withdrawals are very few, except the Roman Catholic children, and those latter go on with some other subject in, which they, may happen to be weak. There is not the-slightest friction or ill-feeling in regard to the matter." / Teachers here are urging that there are political and religious disabilities imposed on teachers in Australia in oonsequenoo of religious instruction. • •

"All I knov on this point is that regulations published 80 years ago imposed political and religious disabilities on the teachers of Queensland, that is more than a quarter of a century before there was any religious instruction in tho ' State schools; consequently religious instruction is not responsible for these disabilities. As. a-matter of fact, the disabilities aro not impossd upon us as teachers, but as membe*s of the Civil Service, to' the whole of which-these regulations apply. ; I have heard very few • teachers resent these political disabilities; certainly they do not intorfero with our attending political meetings,' 'or exercising- our franchise, or attending church.. They would prohibit us making a political speech; but they do;.not;.interfere with 1 our religious interests. Teachers are churchwardens, elders, circuit stewards, and ore prominent in 6peaking as members . of assemblies, conferences, and 6ynods,_ and of every other kind of ecclesiastical organisation. They take part in services, and aro organists, Sunday school teachers, and choir members; I myself am the head of Church Girls' Club. Tho regulations simply hinder' us .being used to do the proper work of a regular minister of religion," ; And what about tho teachers? "I would prefer to say nothing about ! their attitude, becauso I cannot thipk they would oppose i£'if they had my practical experience of it; but what does surprise me about the teaohers is the number of people who have, mentioned to me their" oDjections to the teachers having anything to do with tho lessons. This week public gathering a . lady, whom I do not know, got into conversation witli me, and told me there were too many of the teachers whom 6he did not trust. Similar remarks havo been made to mo in the train and in every, town I visited. During ithe whole of tho controversy in Queensland not one person ever spoke to mo in a similar strain about our teaohers there. I havo met some of the, New Zealand teachers, and they were just as good as ours, which makes the prejudice I have heard quite incomprehensible to ino." ,