BIBLE-IN-SCHOOLS

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2201, 14 July 1914, Page 6

BIBLE-IN-SCHOOLS

AND PARTY POLITICS CANON GARLAND ON THE OPPOSITION LEAGUE THE ROMAN CATHOLIC MANIFESTO 'At a meeting of the Central Commitof " tho Bible-in-State-Sclipols' rLeaguo/for'the Wellington Province, and ot, the -Women's; League for the; same area;, held last night, Canon Garland referred to tho Opposition League's • - deputation to the: .Prime' Minister on Saturday last. . Canon Garland drew attention to tlie iact that the League : had consistently stated-that it knew no political party,, and legaTded all political parties with indifference, so long as a member of' Parliament would v be prepared .to trust the people' to vote for; themselves. _ Now, he regretted to. ; ' r.otice, party .politics had been intruded into the matter. This- had been done ■ by their .opponents; who. sent a, loading representative,', to the ..Labour Conference «to ; solicit: its support—a support which was given, in- response to the .request of, the Opposition Loaguo, which . therefore;,was now allied, so-far'as this subject was concerned; with-the United t'ederatibri of (Labour..■.. This was borne ..out by tho 'statement of Mr. A- Rosser, a -Labour Conference delegate, who,•at "tho oppbsition league's. deputation ' to .the Prime Minister, said that tho'Labour Conference delegates had endorsed ; tho- position' taken .'by Professor HunV ter when he .addressed them on behalf .. ct .. tho - National.. Schools' Defence League. • Ho . (Ganon . Garland) said he was fio't yet : prepared to say what action tho . Jiible-in-State-Schools'- League was prened to take as a result of the union weou Rod Feds.and the' Opposition League, . but that,..party politics had been, intruded; upon-this question lay in : any .event, in the first .instance at tho v door of - tho opposition,league". He' was rather, amusedtoiind'the. Attorney-Gen-eral of . tho Reform Party,'who had been so much abused by tlie "Red Feds" . liior. his action, in the'strike, now associated with them. Possibly ,'when tho General Election came these same "Red wFeds" would show their sympathy with Mr; Herdman and his colleagues in a - practical fashjari.' • , . Tho Teacher's Conscience. There was.a remark of Mr. Herdman'a upon winch ho would say. a word. That ' gentleman had asked: Did not Mr.Sjtdey's Referendum Bill contain a conscience clause tor teachers? To which ' the answer is that it did,'and for this reason: that Mr. Sidey's Bill as printed provided for the opening of schook . with Scripture reading and . prayer by tho teacher. . • - The league's. proposal so far as th& ""teachers' share was.concerned was less „than ■ ,Mr. Sidey's—r.'erely the .supervision'-: of a ' lesson 'from the J ;. highest ..classical -: English —the .Bible," as they ■ would supervise a ~-lesson from any other book. Consequently thero was no necessity for a conscience' '.'clause. If the .teacher ;could give, a Ids-', "son- about-tho Koran.-without a> conscience clause, surely he could supervise '.''the children when they read from selectVcd passages of the Book'wlic'h was their :?;iiati6rial.;heritage; Under the:league's ;;system,.'any religious teaching wouldbe ■; given-, by the representatives, :of the Churches, not by State school,teachers. The Referendum Principle. Mr. Massey. had drawn attention'to the "fact that the principle of' the referendum as suitable to such a .matter had already been recognised by Roman - Catholics, who had. voted for it in , the House on a former occasion'.: Indeed, this had been done-elsewhere, as, for '-''•instance,-in > Switzerland, '• in 1882,-when : a referendum was taken,'which: was re■lgai'ded ,'thei most 1 notable in 1 that country,- both - 'from-., the - importance of the question voted on; and' from the laige number, of electors who went, to .-•; the polli. It was taken as the resylt of a request in which Roman-Catholics liad joined,. and upon which they united' ■ with orthodox Protestants and other religious people . generally, '. to . vote , as against the minority, composed, of Gef--man Radicals, Freethinkers, and 1 Social-'-;-..istSv-.; ;■•' ; V-''- - i-y The motto adopted by.:Ronian-Cath-i olics and orthodox-Protestants through- ■ out the whole; of Switzerland was "God " in the-schools.' 1 It was opposed by a bogus cry against Roinan Catholicism, ■ ana with a denunciation, of-the danger . of clericalism:: He .asked: If it l,.werev right for Roman Catholics to demand and'take'part in a, referendum'under .the cry "God.in the schools", in Switzerland,- in 1882, how could-they find the •principle of-the referendum wrong in ■New Zealand in 1914?. He did not mean tor a moment that 'he supposed if the referendum were-provided, by Parliament that,.Roman Catholics would vote "Yes." He believed tho greater majorbut;; that., . diiviiot affect tlie''principle' ih."question . that in 1882 they advocated a referendum in...Switzerland, and here denied the right, tol'settle' ' instructidn?in soho^ls^by. i'tli^hiethod- - which -]\y ' THE SALVATION ARMY; ; 3^ND^Hj?;^B|NISH^#BLE.''; . ."Tn cbnneetionfSvith -'the..J';Bible-in- ; gazetteof" tlie -Zealand,' the\''War Cry," in- a 'leading* ijjtiplo in this week's issue, says:— -.. ■i ' minister'bf''feligibn'"lias 1 " the' right ;of entry, the argument ataut injustice is manifestly a-meretricious one, just-in tho .-iame way as the cry'for'State aid is to the dictates of .'an enlightened and;fundamentally . opposed; to^liat. 'spirit:-of •strict ,and imjpartial equality':'whicli. .is' the basis of; our civic life. . . . That there should be'people who profess to call themselves - pliristians opposed to the widest circulation 'of the Gospel'among the y onug is n deplorable and astonishing fact, or accident, but that a State should deliberately -banish the; Bible from the ' people's schools is a. national outrage' and an-nnspeakable scandal.'! 1 . APPRECIATION. . RESOLUTIONS FROM NEAR AND ■ - : PAR.. ' - - ' . The Rangiora Methodist quarterly ; meeting, , held .last 'week,, .representing seven congregations, unanimously passed a resolution of appreciation. Resolu- . Moiis hn've also been passed by tho Methodist Circuit, by,_ the Fendiilton branch of the. -Bible-in-Schools liijague, the Ashbiirton women's branch of-the Bible-in-Schools League, the AshMirton Methodist Church, quarterly meeting,\tlie ~Te; Kuiti Methodist quarterly meeting, the Northern Wairoa Methodist cirotiit officials, the quarterly meeting of the. office-bearers of the L'cv'in-Otaki Methodist Circuit (which last resolution called on Mr. Roliertson, M.P., to support the referendum). A largo meeting'of electors held in St. Peter's Schoolroom, Riccarton, also passed a resolution of appreciation. BISHOP CLEARYIS VIEWS. OF A-FEW YEARS'AGO. • IBy Te)e2raDh—Sncclftl ComsDondent.). Dunedln, July 13. ' ■ ' Considerable interest is shown in the Bible-in-schools question in: the Dunedin Central electorate, in connection with' tie Referendum Bill on the Bible

in. schools. At a meeting in connection with the; Church of England in Mornington the' other day, Mr. Stathain, scnr., spoke strongly in favour of the Bible, and moved a resolution that was unanimously carried, that members of-Parliament give their support to the Bill. In' tho Mornington Presbyterian Church, the minister has been authorised, in tho namo of .the office-bearers and a congregation numbering 350, to appeal to the members of the Cabinet and the member for the district to support the Bill in the Houso, • Tho manifesto of the Roman Catholic Bishops'is published in tho "Times" this morning, and is to a considerable extent a reproduction of an address which Dr. Cleary gave, here about a year ago. . People are looking upon it as a powerful appeal for the preservation and perpetuation-'of the secular -system' of education, but this is probably not the intention of tlie Bishops. In the "Ota'go Daily Times" a few vears ago' Bishop Cleary published a scathing and merciless denunciation of our scoular';system-, and wrote about it its follows :rrr i "In the. year 1877 the New Zealand Government jo found the flag of Christ flying upon;.the schools. It' took that flag down."u; By a positive and formal legislative enactment it, in effect, ban.ished God from the place which (on Christian principles) he holds' by natural right "and pedagogical necessity, to which is"* superadded the long prescription of the ages, and the .common conse'nt of Christendom. In interna-.. tional law the tearing down of the flag of a friendly, Power, especially from tho prescriptive..place, is .an-act of war." "He also denounced the Nelson system, and held it' up to' scorn as something that; might' have been conceded by the French Revolutionists when Notre Damo was used for the worship of the Goddess of Reason. He further said in the "Times,"'with regard to the .system tliat: '"If God is brought into the system, He is .brought in surreptitiously, and as a stowaway, and all teaching regarding His law is as contraband as pipe opium." ' The position the Roman Catholics took, up to very recent years, was that they preferred tlie Bible in schools on Protestant lines' to secularism, while they insisted "that they should have grants'/for schools. . Now this manifesto seems to say thstt thev prefer a. secular system to a religious institution in schools: system. .' ~