BIBLE IN SCHOOLS

Hokitika Guardian, 21 October 1927, Page 1

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS

(13y Telegraph—Per Press Association

WELLINGTON. Oct. ”0. Mr A. B. Atkinson continued hi

evidence on the Committee’s resumption. Mr Atkinson saitl tiiat benevolence was the ultimate goal of all religious persecutions, misunderstandings and religion.; strife appeared in them all. What Mr Jsitt had said had proved the strongest argument against h|s Hill. 11 is attitude towards the Homan Catholics showed that the logical consequences of his creed, as shown in the Bill, would he: " We have done best, with these heretics and they must go to the Stake.” That was his attitude —though boiling oil was out of the fashion nowadays. To accept the logic of the Bill was to accept the logic of oppression and persecution. Me asked why the Church should not take over the instruction of children on | malter wltieti was essentially the ( litirch's business. This was not I

ion trove rsv. in which one could feel proud of l'tis Protestantism. It would he a gross injustice to ask Roman Catholics to pay. in addition to their ~wn expenditure, any proportion to the ( cost of education of Protestant children. In reply to Mr Atmore, he said he did not believe in majority ruling in the cases of conscience.

The Jewish Rabbi, Dr Van Staveren. gave evidence that he is opposed to the Bill, but not to the Nelson system Mr T. B. Strong, the Director of Education, said that he and his senior colleagues, as well as the majority of the teachers, were in favour ot the Bill. He said that no book in the world had more pointed and attractive stories, illustrating right conduct and the great principles on which society was founded, than the Bible. It was even more important from the view of secular education as to the foundation of all that was excellent in English literature. The separation of the study of the Bible from ordinary school lessons could he nothing but harmful, and was most likely to give the pupil an entirely wrong view of the Bible in the literary life of the nation. For its literary value, -if for nothing else, the JBible should be studied in ordinary school hours, and, under the guidance

of the trained school teachers, verbal explanations of passages should be permitted.