RELIGION IN STATE SCHOOLS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1891, 28 October 1913, Page 4

RELIGION IN STATE SCHOOLS.

REMARKABLE CHANGE IN SOUTH AFRICA. (To the Editor.) Sir,—l give below soine direct quotations from the South African correspondent of a recent English newspaper, which show tho remarkable tWuge phtch lias come over tho religious pdttoatioii question in that Commonwealth cmrnig tho last fow years—a change which culmiuated this year, in tho Bible and religious teaching being given their propef plaqo ,in tho South African educaticnal system. The matter should be specialty interesting at the present time owing to the big demand now for a similar change iu haw Zealand. Tho Witter says:— • ' ,^' 10 r l ue stion of religious education in the JtatO' undeuominatiojial schools hnn been before South .Africa more or less since the end of the war'. The problem has been different from that in. many other parts of the British Empire because tho majority of tho population demand sofno religious teaching iu the Government schools—tho Dutch are the . majority, and for thorn the question is simplified because they ail demand the same thing, namely, Bible teaching, plus tho uso of tho Heidelberg Catechism, which tlwyliav© taught in South Africa to their children from generation to generation, sincfe tho first Dutch settlers landed to found Ca.pe Town, in the middle of tho seventeenth century. "Tho English Church in South Africa lias led the way in higher , education, ' but has never been a bio to provide Church schools for primary education." I'our years ago, however, the Anglican ''Provincial Synod of 1909 carried a motion to confer with tho Duteli K<> folined Church with regard to common action oil-the subject, .. . A joint commission of tho Dutch and Anglican ■' c-ic-rgy was appointed ill 1910. ... Tho commission cone to % mianimou* neii* elusion to draw up a syllabus of Bible teaching, to bo supplemented by a catechism for uso in tho Government schools, based upon the Heidelberg Catechism. The scliumo was laid before tho Wcsleyan Conferonco, and was accepted by them. _ Subsequently, .the Presbyterians came iiito line, and., . . the,agreement rcached .represented . ninety per cent, ofthc.. European' Christians jn tho . country." . Some ht-tlo tifiiq after this "a Parliamfiiitary .Commission', reported -strongly ' in. favour of religious instruction upon a basis thus agreed upon; and in 1012 the matter came into; tho Legislature. The Provinoial Council accepted the principles of the concordat, and an ordinance making , religious instruction compulsory every day in tho Government schools was passed a month ago. Tho opponents of religious education were very busy., A small knot of determined Secularists gavo trouble, but they were overwhelmed by tho solidarity of tho .Dutch yoto. The gain is enormous. The catechism, with its definite dog- ; ma.tic .teaching, is permitted to bo tbtight, and can be mndo compulsory where the parents desiro it. Tho Scripture syllabus is absolutely compulsory, and becomes a definite part of the Government school curriculum. The secularist opposition was overborne by. the determination of the politically powerful Dutch party, who did not shrink fiom saying that they would flood tho ■ country with their own denominational - schools," and wreck tho Government school system if religion _ were not taught. , They' had tlio power and the money to do this.- But if they had (done it), the English children would have to go to their schools, or else ro-' sort to schools on a purely secular basis. From this difficulty the new Government ordinance saves us." , This triumph of the ..Biblc-an-Schools ' party in South Africa should prove very grateful news to the members and frionds of tho Bible Lcaguo of New * Zealand; and should wicourago them to f pu forward with absolute determinati-oa ( to win tho battlo for this Dominion, j rho.y have tho clearest possible evidence . that tho Holy Spirit of God is working, 1 His Will out in other countries of tho , world as woll as in New Zealand, and is with t-lio peoples of those other countries as well as with ourselves in the, Pohlo work of putting the Biblo and religious teaching in their proper placo > ir. the schools of theso favoured lands. Tho South African law provides for • more than the New Zealand. League is ' asking, inasmuch as it requires more : from the State school teacher than wo seek, and is compulsory oil all chillren. Ihe fact, however, stands out' that New Zealand is separiitod from most other' Rnglish-apoaking countries, which oivo bv olio ato coming into line with tho Rnglish tradition that tho Bible must liavo its plneo in iuiy educationaj system which purports to givo\cducatiqn in iCngliah.—l am, etc., A Colonist of 47 years' standing, and s> '• Fighter in this Cause for 35 years. English applo orchards sovor .180,000 acres, against 500,000 acres in Prance. Tho Thames Embankment was iem* plcted in ISU9, at a cost of X 1,710,000. Through lack of funds five wards liavo been closed at Chari.u-g Crass. Hospital. Tho coal milled yearly is werth£100,000,000; the gold only 000, Among persons over SO years of 3iie iii 50 is blind. Sixty men emigrate from Bnginnd for :very 40 women. Out of tlu-ce persons struck by lights ning only one is lulled. Gfeeco holds tlio earthquake record milt 1187 shocks in fivo years. Wild canaries were not yellow originally, jut gitei or grey in colour. The skeleton measures -all inch less tluili the height of a living man. ' Iron is seven times as heavy W!.itc-v r bulk for bulk, and- gold 10 times. Daily 250,000 foot passengers and 120.,00tt .•chicles cross London Bridge. A plot of land, 20 square yards in ex~ -Hit in Guilford, has been sold by tho town ■ Council at .£250. which is equal ,to £12 10s. per square yard, aild at I'ho rata if ,£60,500 per aero. A woman who was 6ent to gaol at New* sastle for tlio theft of five half'sovereigns' rom a hotel, mode an unsuccessful atenipt to swallow the coins wheii being aken to the police station. A stone trough, variously identified as l Christian (possibly of Celtic date) iww r.ersien font, and as a relic e : f tho Wiu-J. hestor wooi industry, has been placed in he new. Southampton Corporation' luseum,