The Religious Text Book.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 107, 2 November 1895, Page 3

The Religious Text Book.

The Wellington correspondent of the Dunedin Star says :— Da 01 **"* °, n the seventy-two petitions presented in \ favor of the introduction of the Irish! National Scripture lesson books into the State schools, the M to Z Committee j find as follows :— (1) the witnesses were almost unanimous in repudiating any charge against our educational system of being devoid of moral training for the young. Several spoke in warm commendation of ethics inculcated, and the charge of the system being a godless one was repudiated by all who did not limit the definition of godless to the absence of Biblical extracts. (2) Valuable though conflicting evidence will be found regarding the benefits anticipated from the mere reading of passages of the Scriptures without comment. To allow the teachers to explain passages would inevitably lead to sectarianism. At the present time religious instruction may be given out outside school hours, and has been tried with varying success. (3) The evidence of the Rev. Mr Van Stavern clearly proves that the members of the Jewish persuasion would view the introduction of the text books with grave disapprobation. A telegram received from Archbishop Redwood is as follows :— " Catholic sentiment opposed to the plan re Bible reading as a solution of the educational difficulty."