LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1860, 20 September 1913, Page 13

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

PROFESSOR MACKENZIE'S LATEST,

Sir, —lu (ijkply to Professor Mackenzie, I do" not wish to go into all the points raised by his lettor, sullico it to say that theso havo been all discussed several times, and it would jiot further either sido to go into them again. Tlio main point at issue is: Was Canon Garland justified ill using tho name of Sir Michael Sadler, as favourable to tho present movement hero in New Zealand ? Professor Mackenzie should beware of Sir Michael Sadler's opinions on this religious question of teaching in State schools. 1 shall quoto Sir Michael Sadler's opinions as expressed in a volume on tho religious education question in Britain, published in.1911, wlierein Sir Michaol Sadler states, on Pago 21, as fellows: —

"Tho editors of tho volume are far from thinking .that they have found the key to a difficulty which has lohg perplexed tho minds of statesmen in England and elsewhere. If they were asked, howovcr, to disclose tho view to which they themselves havo been led in tho courso of thoir inquiry, they would put forward principles as being, in their judgment, fundamental: (1) Religious (including moral) instruction and training must form part of any system of .national education designed to impart belief in a moral ideal as tho groundwork of character. (2) The contents of any courso of religious instruction and training which purports to bo in accordance with tho faith of a. particular church must be under thf>. control of tho spiritual authority of that church and not of some secular authority endeavouring to interpret it. (3) It is undesirable that tho State should attempt to impose uniformity of religious belief or of religious instruction upon all children ill the nation by means of tho-system of State-controlled or Stateaided education. This principle, if accepted, renders unacceptable (1) tho imposition of tho doctrines of one particular church to the exclusion of those of others; (2) an attempt to enforce undenominational Christian teaching as the solo form of religious instruction eligible for aid from tho State; and (3) the enforcement, under the name of moral instruction, of humanitarianism as a substitute for Christian doctrine."

I should add that along with Profossor Sir Michael Sadler in compiling this v<Jj|umo were associated Messrs Riley and Jackson, and judging from my previous' quotations of Sir Michaol Sadler's it seems now that they havo found a key as far as Britain is concerned. In conclusion I prefer, and I think m6st fair-minded people will agree with me to follow Sir Michael's lead on this question and not Professor Mackenzie's.

It is beyond dispute that Canon Garland' was justified in quoting Sir Michael Sadler as differing from ccrtain teachers and university professors in New Zealand who deny that religious instruction should havo any place in State schools.—l am, etc.,

THOS. M. MILLIGAN. September, 10, 1913.