BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1843, 1 September 1913, Page 11

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

ADDRESS BY CANON GARLAND. 'At Trinity Methodist Church yesterday afternoon, Canon Garland delivered an address on th-o Biblc-in-schools movement. Proceedings wero opened by the Rev. William Funcourt, vicar of St. Thomas's, Newtown, and the prayers wero said by tho Rov. J. Ward, minister of the church. Mr. Fancourt alluded to his presenco there as an indication of how the churches wero coming closer to ono another as a result of tho league's work. Canon Garland began by referring to Mr. Ward having chosen tho Nineteenth Psalm as tho lesson for tho sen-ice, and pointed out that ho had read it from ono of the Queensland Scripture-lesson books. He asked why the children in Now Zealand could not havo such a magnificent specimen of literature with its moral teaching quite apart from tho question of its religious value. In other parts of tho world children could read tho beauties of tho English language in their Scripture lessons. They Had the Ten Commandments,. the Beatitudes, and such-liko passages suitable for children in special reading books. Ho had no fault to find with' New Zealand school literature as such, hut he claimed that tho children should have access to tho highest literature of all as a part of their education. . He said it was urged against the league's proposal that educational authorities in New Zealand did not believe in religious instruction in Statu schools. Ho admitted that at the New Plymouth Conference tlio delegates, by 42 votes to six voted- against tho league's proposal, but he reminded his hearers of tho recent newspaper correspondence, which showed that tho opposition sido of the case was placed 011 the desks of the delegates, and that tho conference did not represent all the teachers of Now Zealand, but only those who were members of the .instituteabout 3000, ho believed. On the other side, ho quoted Professor Huxley, reading extracts from liis biography, showing that Huxley had supported tho arangement agreed to by tile' London School Board in 1871, that ho had voted for it, and voted against all amendments that were antagonistic tj it. Huxley believed in the Bible being read in tho schools, and maintained that this should be done in a puroly grammatical, geographical, and historical sense. Ho had written, also, "If I wero compelled to choose for ono of my own children a school in which real religious instruction is given, and one without it, I should prefer the former." Canon Garland mentioned a number of other names of men, such as Sir Michaol Sadler, Cyril Jackson, Professor Thistleton Mark, and Professor Quiller Couch, all of whom held that religious teaching as part of tho school curriculum was practicable, and should be included. He quoted New Zealand educational authorities, beginning with Dr. Laishloy, tho Education Commissioner, who, in the 'eighties) in a report to Parliament, made special reference to tho inadequacy of the purely secular system of education, and recommended tlio Bible being included lVthe school curriculum. Tho Southland Teachers' Institute had refused to join in the opposition to the League's proposal, claiming that the parents wero tho proper persons to judge. Mr. Dean, head teacher of ono of the schools at Waihi, had written, "I regard the action of tho institute in adopting the resolution it did as a piece of impertinence. Members would havo dono well to remember that thoso who pay tho piper ha™ a right to choose the tunc." The present and all preceding presidents of the Southland Institute were also supporters of tlio League, in comntos with many othor teachers throughout the Dominion who wero longing for religious instruction in' State schools. Ho referred to tho meeting of tho Wellington Instituto, when'they carried a resolution by a majority of ono, which resolution included condemnation of the platform of the Bible-in-Stato-Schools League. Such a condemnation would have boen practically unanimous twelve months ago. ,