The chronicle PUBLISHED DAILY. LEVIN. MONDAY, MARCH 22, 1915. THE BIBLE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 22 March 1915, Page 2

The chronicle PUBLISHED DAILY. LEVIN. MONDAY, MARCH 22, 1915. THE BIBLE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

.'titiL'ii lius Ijvc'Ji heard in Now Zealand about action existing ill io~ t ,ui-d Lvj tiic *j-euiiod system t i cducitlion" conducted L»y tiiu State. itio lULile agitation ol 11)13-1-1 io a referendum oil tlie question

;.s iu whether the .Bible should be read m public schools, liuuiy weie made that parents all over New Zealand were taking their children iwaj lroui the public .schools and sanding them to private schools wherein scriptural lessons tormud part of the curiicuium. So tar there is no earnest given of those assertion/*, and it i-. lo be hoped that thofce who guided the pre-referendum agitation will allow the issue as to denominational schools to return to the dea.d past that has ltokl it l'or over forty years. Tile loregoing remarks were evoked by a cursory perusal of the latent volume of statistics concerning education issued from the Registrar-General's office. The regnHi'HC .c'l'Hii- . • pHIU'lt •. i: I lcil(!■■ i rii .-..Jih tli a! lyi-i !i >!»> ■■■\,•i <--1 r ■ t i_. is, N'^ 1 . . /'■<*;■ < -■ ud .-"'.re:.':. ,■: »y*u:iii 'u'nUm i>!I! ■ hn-tir With :UC ;• "IP 1 ". lit !h.- in 1 .", tlli-ie ne'v > lit :• i !'o •• .ik'it-si private schools—-a sniiill percentage out of a million souls. I''urther, the number below the age of sevcii'vears was 55D1, and it is a lair inference that the majority of these would go on the public schools as graduates in Standard I. A further notable feature of the private schools is that two-thirds of the total of 21.115 are comprised of Roman Catholic schools. Therefore it becomes clearly apparent that the volume of dissatisfaction identified by Canon Garland and his coadjutor leaders of the referendum agitation was a mere figment of fact in 1913. We Khali await with special interest the issue of the Regis-trar-General's statistics for 1914, which will show to what extent (if any) the proselytising endeavours of the I»ible-iii-Schools League have made themselves apparent in the attendances at private schools during the year ended 31st December last.