BIBLE IN SCHOOLS

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2135, 29 April 1914, Page 7

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS

(To the Editor.) Sir,—}, have tried hard to form some conclusion from the largo quantity of correspandeneo upon the Bibio-in-scfioots question that lias from time to time appeared in The DoamoK; but your correspondents merely shift from one cicbate to another.. 1 have no wish t<3 thrust myself in between Professors Mackenzie and Hunter and Mr. Jiilligan and others, who, to my mind, beat the a.ir abont non-essential points. These peo» pie have had cohmui a-fter column, of type- set for them, but the great body of the electors is no wiser about tho aims of tho BiUe-iu-Sehools League than it was ttto years ago. Is it not tiraoiho league made soffio public pronouncement Upon its definite aims, cither through Tiiii Dpmikiok or through a publk: .meeting ill the Wellington Town Hall P As far as I hare read, few members ef the league liavo any definite idea of what tho ultimate result or the ultimate goal would ho if a, referendum was granted, so earely it is not too tiittch to ask tho Icagjw. to follow tho cxamplo of the* No-liieenso League and put forth a definite programme, to meet objections, answer questions, and generally put up a.n open and clean fight, so that those electors who have been asked to sign cards will know what to do? If tho league has nothing to be ashamed of, it lias no need to work in tho dark and. among church-going people alone. It tho platform, and definite ofejeers aro set forth, all discussion could bo strictly confined- to the subject, and the idiosyncraeies of the late Pontius Pilate anil, the Jewish rabble loft atone. Civilisation has evolved and progressed during two thousand years, and surely the wnolo question is net cn-o of an appeal to popular superstition, but to truth, reason, knowledge, and commoneense. It is net even "a question of an appeal to fer consciesce is but a question of opinion dependent- upon ninny contingencies, chief of whichare heredity, environment, cdtication, time, and geographical pesitiiin. Will tho "league kindly come out into the open and face the genera! public, and let those who debate ihs_ snbjc-et keep to' the issue as to whether it would be any advantage to this educational system of Xcw Zealand for the State to voMgnise any religion in the primary veh'ools.—l am. etc., SIRIUS.