RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN SCHOOLS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1986, 17 February 1914, Page 7

RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN SCHOOLS.

BISHOP FEODSHAM'S PROPOSALS. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright London, February 16. The Rev. W. Robertson Nicoll, Editor of the "British Weekly," the wellknown Nonconformist journal, in a letter to the Press, states that he doubts whether'. the . Nonconformists 1. would adopt tho suggestions of Dr. Frodsham "(formerly Anglican Bishop/ of North Queensland) ! regarding tho problem of religious instruction in State schools. In a- letter to tho London "Times," Dr. , Frodshaiti stated:—For seventeen, years I have lived in a State whole education is .fully nationalised, and whero the religious difficulty has been removed by the State,, allowing the parents to decide the character of the religious education their own children shall receive. " The State, in Queensland is purely neutral. It allows denominational and undenominatidnal teaching in all schools, and at the same time-it provides that those parents who do not want their own children to receive any religious teaching shall not bo penalised. It is this complete neu- . trality which I venture to recommend in England, and which I believo is possible both in "provided" and in "non-provided" schools.alike. Unless this is done in tho future Education Bill the religious difficulty will only nppevir in another form, to the detriment of education as a whole.