CORRESPONDENCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 450, 27 February 1909, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

[to the editor. J Sir,— -I saw by your paper of Thursday’s date that the vicar of the Anglican Church is applying to the local School Committee for leave to give religious instruction to pupils after school time. I think the vicar deserves praise for his missionary enterprise. If appropriate passages of scripture are read to pupils, with a short explanatory exposition by the minister, I believe children of other denominations would be allowed to attend, and parents would welcome the opportunity afforded. If, on the other side, the Anglican vicar seeks to introduce questions of ritual and doctrine, then a point blank refusal should be made to his request by the School Committee. In these days our children require to be fed on the kernel of Christianity, not on the husks or dressing, and sectarianism should not be permitted in our State schools, even after hours. — Yours etc., Interested Parent.

Sir, —In your issue of Thursday, you give a prominent position to the lact that the Anglican clergyman of Foxton had made an application to the School Committee for leave to give religious instruction to the children attending that school. By inference you suggest that the other ministers of Foxton are not “ anxious to impart religious instruction to the children.” Now, what are the facts of the case ? Some time ago I interviewed both Mr Mairs and Mr Woodward in reference to imparting Bible instruction to the school children. The former was quite willing to fall in with the proposal, but the latter said if he were to take part he would have to teach the doctrines, etc., of the Anglican Church. I then told him I would be entirely opposed to any sectarian instruction being imparted in the State school, and that ray object was simply to give Bible instruction—a very different matter tb the idea of Mr Woodward. However, he informed me he would think over the matter and let me know later. Mr Woodward’s application to the School Committee, as published by you, Is the first intimation I have had of Mr Woodward’s intention. In justice to the other ministers of the town I ask you to give equal publicity to the above, so that any false impression your article of Thursday may have created will be removed. —Yours etc., Geo. K. Aitken, Presbyterian Minister. [When we published the note referred to by our correspondent we had no idea that he had conferred with the vicar of the Anglican Church on the subject and we regret if our remarks carried the suggestion of indifference on the part of other ministers. If sectarianism is to be introduced into Ihe teaching, then the church buildings or Sunday schools are the proper places for imparting such in-struction-—Ed. H.]