"A SPORTING OFFER."

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1793, 4 July 1913, Page 9

"A SPORTING OFFER."

BIBLE-IN-SCHOOLS. CANON GARLAND AND THE REFERENDUM. Ono of the most forcible speeches delivered so far at the Anglican Synod was that of tho Bev. Canon Garland, organising secretary of tho Biblo in State Schools league, on Wednesday evening Tho children of Now -Zealand. suid tho speaker, had tho right to be instructed in the schools in the faith of their fathers. The State compelled every , child to attend school and receive secular instruction. It was tho duty of the State to teach, morality, and to carry out tliat duty it must havo a standard of morality. He refused to believe that there coulu bo any other standard in New Zealand than the Christian standard. So long as wo lived under the British Constitution it must • bo . bo. . • Tho State, when it undertook the duty of .educating a child, was. in loco pareutis to that child, and took over many of the functions of a parent, Tho State, however, failed tjo (provide the child with moral instruction. The Royal Commission on Education last year had recognised that not only the bodies and the minds, but the souls of the children, should be eared for, and recommended that a certain book should be- placed on tho shelves of every school library. That book had been written by an avowed atheist. .It contained lessons on Confucius and his disciples, on Aladdin and his lamp, and on Mohammedan commandments, but not a ■ single word about the great Saviour and Benefactor of the human race. He recognised that the majority of the • teachers of tho Dominion were against them, but there was a very considerable minority supporting them. The resolution of the New Plymouth conference seemed like an attempt on the part of forty-two men to muzzlo half a million electors in their demand for a referendum. A great deal had been said about the Nelson system, but ho had been unable to findiin the Education Act any authority for the working of this system. What they wanted—and they would stand or fall by this—was legislative authority to give proper instruction, and not to hold lessons as an "extra," and a rival of football and marbles in the interest of the children. ' In the demand for the referendum, they were appealing not to a Parliament of seventy odd men,, but to half-a-million electors. They were appealing'to tho highest tribunal in tho land—the people themselves. The referendum .was a thoroughly democratic principle, and one with which New Zealanders were well acquainted, on such questions as prohibition, weekly halfliolidays, and municipal loans. Befercnda on the Bible-in-schools proposal had been taken in threa Australian States., In. Victoria and South Australia tho proposal was defeated, and it was carried in Queensland. They were therefore asking for a referendum on a question on which they had been twice defeated, and on ■which they'had had but ono victory. This was, ho thought, what some of their friends would call "a sporting offer." (Laughter.) The referendum would obtain a clear decision-with the least possible disturbance of political life, and would give every member of tho community an opportunity to declare definitely and secretly his attitude 'towards a difficult problem. At 1 the conclusion of his ; speech Canon Garland was enthusiastically applauded.