POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 690, 29 July 1914, Page 3

POINTS FOR THE PEOPLE.

(fublished by Arrangement.)

RIGHTS OF THE PARENT THE REFERENDUM AND ITS OPPONENTS It is an old saying that an Englishman's housa ia his castle. Our traditions have conserved for m the principle that in those intimate matter? that concern hiß tastea. his religion, and bia family, each man should be free to direct his life as much as possible according to his own ideaß. Public welfare' demands, however, that througn no private whim or personal poverty, should his children remain ignorant and untaught. .Hence we have the splendid instiuttion of free and efficient education. But here enters a difficulty. No part of a man's freedom should be mure inviolabe than his vieWß on religion, and his right to impart them to his offspring. In former days he delegated this duty to the schools of his chosen church, whare both secular and sacred knowledge were imparted. With the growth of the national system he found his facilities for secular in truction increased and improved but his more intimate privilege of religioua instruction totally denied him. The church schools are gone, driven from the field. The demands of the school day and of the school week exclude all but the smallest opportunity of supplying the deficit of religious instruction. Most fatal of all, the very idea of efficient and essential education ia exclusively associated with secular instruction alone. Voluntary religious instruction finds itself enfeebled, hampered at every turn. REFERENDUM OR CAESARISM? Two ways exist of settling the question of inclusion or rejection of religious instruction in the national schools. One is by the direct legis lation . of Parliament; the other by referring the decision to the people themselves. The former, way has been tried eight times in New Zealand, and has resulted in the total exclusion of religious instruction. What is the result? A gathering wave of discontent among those who prize religion as a national heritage has grown insensibly during the last •thirty years until now it occupies the attention of the whols country. Ia this sign of the people's satisfaction with the system or otherwise? It is idle far one party to denounce this discontent as discontent is there. Nay, it bids fair to swell until Booner or later its object 19 achieved in the deseculariaation of the schools of this Christian nation. Ihe policy of direct legislation has obviously failed to meet the needs of the case. The alternative course lies ready for statesmen to adopt. "Broadbased upon the people's will," the national systum, whether ultimately secular or including religion, will no longer remain a disturbing influence above the political arena. SECTARIAN DIFFICULTY

An objection to Bible in Bchools fre-

quently advanced is that sectarianism will enter the schools. The moral effect of the segregation of the children in various groupa said to be that sectarian feelings will be engendered. If this were so, it would undoubtedly be a real objection. But the argument shows a complete ignorance of the child mind. For leas than one twenty-fifth of its school life this separation into classes will take place. Thß broad impressions left on the is that religion has its place in life. The theological doctrines which

divide Christendom are. to the twelve-

year-old, in the abstruse region of the dry and uninteresting. They make no appeal to him. The motion of the instructors' appeal inculcating sectarian prejudice is, in this age of tolerance, manifestly absurd. There is only time, too, for inculcating those broad and simple aspects of Christianity which are of universal appeal to childhood. There remains the uncon scious influence exerted by the knowledge that one class-mate is of another religious fold. Here, again, the child's view must be realised. Much more than with adults, do personality and tastes control the child's affinities. The re-grouping of classes once a week will have an infinitely less effect in affecting friendlinßßß than prowess in football, harm of speech, or living in different streets, and going to different churches and Sunday schools.

, VIEWS OF EDUCATIONAL AUTHORITY "The problem of the immediate future is to reanimate education with the religious ideal." These are the words, not of a "clerical partisan,'' but of the famous Professor Muirhead, of Aberdeen. It is unquestionably the view of this great authority that all the powerful influences that can be exerted beneficially upon the child mind should be co-ordinated and allied. Religion is not to stand outside the workshop, humbly soliciting the attention of the pre-occupied or wearied inmates. It should be given its rightful position of honour and authority where it is capable of working out the finest effects with its unhampered powers. In other words, the most powerful influence for awakening the young mind to high thought 3 and noble enterprise should be given an-equal opportunity wit"3 those that fit him to earn his daily bread. In Switzerland, we are told by Mr G. H. Knibbs, education i* regarded among all classes as a kind of religion. And in Switzerland, by an unsurpassed vote, the people in 1882 rejected the proposal to banish religion from the schools. The association of the two facts is strongly suggestive. Let us not forget the pre-eminence of Switzerland for educational efficiency. AGNOSTICS, ETC. According to census returns, there are a small number of people, about 5 par cent., who Btand outside the Churches which"profeßS faith in the" Christian revelation. It is said that these people will be taxed for facih-

ties which they neither want for their children nor will make use of. Let it be admitted at once that they will. Let it be supposed this is the sole and only argument which is entitled to any weight in the ca3e of the opponents of Bible in schools. There is also a minority of people who object to the territorial defence systam? They are taxed to support it, nevertheless. And why? It is a clear cas9 of the interests and views of the majority outweighing tbosa of the minority. Yet the anti-militarist agitators, so far from convincing magnanimous people that 'the conscentious objectors shouli not pay taxes, has died the death of all impracticable movements. The truth is that no laws can be made to suit every one. Where a maximum of benefit is to be attained, there is i'ue path that legislation must follow.

BAPTIST AND CONGREGATIONAL MINISTERS THROW OVER THE ANTI-BIELE LEAGUE The National Schools Defence League is somewhat hasty in publishing the names of clerical supporters of its No-Bible in the schools' programme. It has published to the world tbat Congregational ministers in Dunedin, viz., Messrs Ashford and Wallace, were members of its executive,' and it is also made known that Baptist ministers like Messrs Jones and Balaston, of Dunedin, were also members of the executive. ' It now turns out that thssa men have not the slightest sympathy with the "NoBible" in the syllabus programme of the National Schools Defence Leagu?, and, further, that instead of objecting to the referendum, they are in favour of the referendum. These men, over their own names, have signed a statement that they wish the Bible in the school syllabus, and they favour a right of entry under the Nelson system, which means that they go fourths of the way to the Bible-in-State-Schools League platform.