BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1778, 17 June 1913, Page 7

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

THE NELSON SYSTEM. ADDRESS BY CANON GARLAND. 'A. meeting of anembors of tho Women's League in connection with the Bible-in-sohools movement was held in St. John's Sohoolroom yesterday, and aftor the transaction of business those present were addressed by Canou Garland. Speaking of the recent effort to bring the Nelson system to the front, he pointed out that in a telegram which had been published, reporting the late proceedings of tho Nelson Presbytery, the statement had been mado that the Assembly of the Presbyterian Church had not consulted the Presbyteries. Canon Garland said that he had received a communication from the Rev. 11. E. Davies, of Knox Church, Dunedin, tho convenor of the Bible-inr State Schools Committee Of the Assembly, which stated that tho Assembly of 1011' had directed every Presbytery to bo consulted, and that thi*3 had been done, every reply which had been received from the Presbyteries was in the affirmative, and three Presbyteries only had not replied, but none had been in the negative. It was clear, therefore, that . there was some mistake in the resolution, of tho Nelson Presbytery. The Nelson system asked only for right of entry, while the league asked that every child in tho Dominion should havo tho opportunity, without any compulsion, of reading the Bible lessons. The league's system would bring the Bible within tho knowledge of every child in ti'io Dominion. It would place Bibfe-lesson books on the shelves of the schools, while the Kelson system did nothing of the sort. The Nelson system, moreover, provided for such as it pave to be outside* school, not in eohool, inasmuch as the instruction' thereunder wa3 given outside school hours. The league's claiift was that religion should not be excluded from the school, but should find a place therein, as part of the child's education, and not as an extra. The Nelson system, as demised, also had no> legal status,' and proTided only for undenominational grouping of children, irrespective of their churches or denominations. The proposal thereunder was that this should be forced upon all by law as the only available method. Many objected to this, ospeoially the Roman Catholics, of whom it could not be conceived they would share in undenominational lessons with . other churches. The league's system did not make undenominational lessons compulsory, but preserved denominational rights for those who preferred them, and. yet gladly allowed in its working undenominational lessons where ministers and parents agreed in grouping? the ohildren ; so that whatever advantage was to be found from undenominational lessons would also ba available; though nob compulsory, if the league succeeded in its proposals, while those who preferred denominational rights to be respected would have provision made foir them. Thus the league's 6cheme madd a greater number of people satisfied than any proposal, Nelson or otherwise, which had been put for-' ward. The fact that the churches constituting the league had advocated the Australian system as their platform was a proof that they had found the Nelson, system defective. They knew all about this svstem and its working, and had deliberately put it on one side in favour of another proposal. He read a letter —not yet published—received from Mrs. Harrison Lee Cowie, which she was sending to the branches of the W.C.T.TJ., and which stated that she was still pursuing her close. investigations in'- New South Wales into tho working of the system. She could find no traces of any discord existing, but, on 'the contrary, found Church of England, Presbyterian, and Methodist ministers working in the; greatest harmony in the schools together, and not only in this but in other things, such as temperance.-' She had mado inquiries about tho alleged disabilities of tea'chers under the regulations, and found that' these were more in the manner than in the observance, and that.they did not exist in practical experience, but in any oase oare conld be taken in New Zealand to prevent the introduction of any such regulation® in common with the league's proposal. Canon Garland added- th,T,t the league had never proposed that any regulations should be introduced of the nature indicated, and he pointed out that it was :lear that where they existed such regulations were not the result of religious instruction, because they also existed when and where there was no religious instruction in the schools.