BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5147, 4 July 1927, Page 4

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

BISHOP OF NELSON’S VIEWS. NATIONAL RECOGNITION OF GtOD. In the course of his presidential address to the Anglican Diocesan Synod at Nelson on- Tuesday last the Bishop of Nelson (Dr. Sfldlier) mafle some outspoken references to the religious exercises in the State Schools Bill which will be considered this session. He said: “We are thus reaching another, crisis in our endeavour to obtain the national recognition- of God and His. Word in oufi schools and to remove the impression from the children’s minds that neither God nor Christian religion has anything to do with the formation of character and the preparation for life, which are the objects of all true education.” There were indications, he continued, that the opponents of the measure would stop at. nothing in order to defeat it. Referring to the suggestion made- in the newspapers that there might be a possibility of the Legislative Council passing the Bill unless the Government .appointed a sufficient number of councillors to ensure its defeat, the Bishop said: “The Bill in State Schools League is no more likely to bring pressure to bear on the Government to appoint councillors to pass the Bill than it is likely to anticipate that the Government will act unscrupulously. The members of the league have a right to expect that the Go vernment will give the Bill a. fair fiel d and a, square deal'.”

Regarding th,e request made some time ago by the Minister of Education to education boards to allow the league access to the school rolls in order that the league might take a plebiscite of parents on the proposals in the Bill, the Biffhop said that it was a fair and just and on» would have thought'that in ah al leg - edly democratic community no objection would have been offered. The Nelson Education Board, presided over by the Hon. Mclntyre, one of the opponents of the Bill, refused to comply with the request. Such an undemocratic action, -deserved recognition of-some kind and it appeared to indicate that the Nelson Education Board was afraid that the parents might vote in favour of the Bill. That this was a fair deduction- might be seen from tli-e fact that the Wellington Board acceded to the request, and notwithstanding an effort to get the board to reverse its decision at fl subsequent meeting,' it adhered to the first decision by -eight votes to three: In the AwateV.e district no fewer than five committees consented to allow the clergy to approach the parents regarding Scr/lpture lessons in the schools, and m j parents who had had conscientious objections to the lessons were disepv -ered. At a meeting of the Palmerston North School Committee Association i there was only one dissenting voice/ raised upon the question.

His Lordship • went on to say that “we are liviijg ir ( a day of great moral danger. o> a all hands we are told by judges, bu siness:- men, and social workers that there- i|S an alarming lack of moral responsibility and a wave of dishor ies ty and uncleanness passing ov er our comnji-unity. No ap*peah to t' le jugglery of statistics will supersede the fact -of experience. There v #as a time when reason and.' con- . science were regarded as the g aiding principles of the moral life-. The greatest philosophic thinkers as well as religious leaders agreed in this, but there are signs that reason* and conscience are now being abandoned as. the ; dreams of a bygone age. Our immediate duty Is to proceed with our work of enlisting the parents of the chi Idren as*members oT.the-leagate. In sucl S a moment as this the signatures ; ind addresses of the voters fin each electorate are the best indica--tion ofj the trend of public opinion.”