LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1841, 29 August 1913, Page 10

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS. A NEW ZEAIiANDER'S EXPEDIENCE. Sir, —That deputation which recently waited upou tho j'rime Minister in protest against those who want to improve our national education should do w;hal I did. While in Sydney last month I thought it a good opportunity to go to a Stato school to see with my own eyes and hear with my own ears how tho system of Bible-in-schools works there. I first went to the Department of Public Instruction, and saw Mr. Hoard, the Director of Education, who gave me a card of introduction to the headmasters and mistresses of any school in Sydney. 1 chose the Darlingluirst school, as it was the closest to the placc where I was staying. It is a large school, with an attendance of about 6UO children, built in the most up-to-date and modern stylo; in fact, it is quite a model school, and not long ago was visited by an architect from New Zealand, who wished to study the plan for' future use in this country. I was kindly received by tho headmaster and mistress, who took a great deal of trouble to make my visit interesting. I was allowed to hear five different classes instructed in Bible and iu moral lessons. A Bible lesson the journeys of St. Paul was given to the senior boys; it was taught with map and blackboard, just like an ordinary history or geography lesson, the boys first reading a verse about from the Bible text-book. I had a talk with the head mistress of the same school, and she spoke most warmly of the good influence in school' tho visits of the clergy had on the children. I asked her if any of the children ever used tho conscience clause, and she could only remember one girl who said her father did not wish her to attend Bible lessons. At my request, tho head mistress put her opinions into writing; ''Throughout a service of over twenty years in the public schools of this State I have never found any evidence of friction due to our system of religious instruction and moral teaching." Before leaving I wrote my name in tho visitors' book in the head master's privato room. 1 noticed the visitors' list during June and July included the names of ministers of Methodist, Anglican, Presbyterian, Congregational Churches, and Jewish Rabbi, etc. The -head master also spoke warmly of the success of the system, and seemed surprised that we in New Zealand had not admitted the Bible into our schools.- Ho wroto the following:— "The special religious instruction at Darlinghurst . works very smoothly. Ministers, of all Protestant denominations attend regularly, and give an hour's lesson once a week. They work harmoniously. The State Scripture books are read under the guidance of the. teachers, and lessons in civics and morals are also given by them.'' —I am, etc., NANCY WILSON. Lethcnty, Bulls, August 28,1913. : f~ MR. ATKINSON AND HIS CRITICS. Sir,—The National Schools Defence League, in its resolution as reported in your columns, speaks of serious charges mado by tne writers of this letter! after such charges "hare been successfully proved to op baseless." The charges* there, referred to are that Jlr. Atkinson, tho president of that league, in a deputation to tho Prime Minister is reported to have stated that:—"lt was very singular that the forces working for the liible-in-schools'movement wero a mixture of religious bigotry and political cant." This is as it actually appeared in •The Dominion columns.of August 11. Eight days later. August 1!), a letter appears from Mr. Atkinson; —"What 1 actually said as reconstructed frpm my notes with tho aid of those of a shorthand-writer . . tho application of the cry, 'trust the people,' to the right of a majority to oppress a minority in matters of religion involves a strong combination of political cant and religious dogma." We point out that Mr. Atkinson himself therein admits using three of the words in the offensive phrase; and has since reaffirmed his adherenco to tho language "political cant"; while his substitution of the word "dogma" for the word "bigotry" not only does not fit in with the context, but also is not *ccepted by The Dominion reporter, who publicly states he is confident that the word "bigotry" was used. If Mr. Atkinson were inaccurately reported as using language, the seriousness of which'lib one wilt question, why did he wait eight- days berore he made any attempt at correcting it, and even then did not do so until he iound a storm of protest raised. That beforo we mentioned the matter Mr. Atkinson did see The Dominion report is beyond contradiction, because on August 13 he writes a letter to The Dominion" in reply to Mr. J. G. W. Aitken, • who had taken exception to something else that Mr. Atkinson had said. The latter'x letter shows clearly that h« Tead 'The Dominion report with an eyo to correction, for ho actually does corrcct the report in a particular alluded to by Mr. Aitken, at the same time speaking in commendatory terms of the "excellent" reports, in which be specifically includes The Dominion. It, therefore, would appear that he saw nothing to corrcct'in the report except the point mentioned by Mr. Aitken, and thereby endorsed both tho accuracy and also the- oifensiveucss of the words "political cant" and "religious bigotry." It is also noticeable that no other member of the deputation, thought it necessary to question the accuracy of the report during the eight days.—We are, etc., DAVID J. GARLAND. JAMES GIBB. C. COI/EKIDGE HARPER. G. S. COOK. ' August 2".