The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, March 21, 1911. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 969, 21 March 1911, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, March 21, 1911. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

“ Think of it, ye long-suffering residents of Woodville !” remarks the Examiner. “The little and enterprising borough of Foxlon has carried a poll on a proposal for the erection of a Municipal Hall to cost £2800.” Foxton may feel flattered that its latest move has been cited for the edification ot a borough that may be considered fairly up-to-date in its public services. It is interesting to note that the municipal area is the same in both cases, but that the population of Woodville is 1215, while that of Foxton is 1450, and the rateable values (unimproved) are respectively ,£41,39 1 and .£68,887. The Hawke’s Bay town, then, must be accounted the more progressive, since it can boast of the following advantages which our own borough lacks: (1) a first-class high-pressure water system, capable ot supplying a population of 5000; (2) an efficient drainage scheme ; (3) appliances and organisation for fire prevention ; and (4) a concrete swimming bath 100 ft by 50ft. Foxton has yet some distance to travel ere it can “give a lead ’’ to the sister town.

Mr M. R. Varnham, a wellknown Wairarapa architect, paid a brief visit to Foxton to-day. In speaking of the proposed municipal hall Mr Varnham said if the Greytown municipal hall was any criterion Foxton ratepayers would have no cause to worry on the score of finance. He said the hall in question, instead of being a bite elephant, as some had preicted, r-s now paying well, and that fi; : ~:ass conr-t tries now included Greytown in their itinerary. Mr Varnham inspected the sketch plans of the proposed local hall and expressed the opinion that provision for all modern appointments had not been overlooked and practically left very little to suggest. He was of opinion that money would be better spent on necessary appointments rather than on an elaborate and ornate exterior.

Vis itu to Foxton express surprise when informed that there is no fire brigade or fire fighting appliances in the borough. One

visitor remarked: “Haven’t you got a chemical engine ? ” No, not even a chemical fire engine. We hope the day may be tar distant ere the fiery elements lick up the wooden structures along the main thoroughlare. Supposing, however, such a catastrophe should happen, how helpless we should be. Is it not time some action was taken to form a volunteer fire brigade ? We believe the necessary support would be voluntarily forthcoming if some citizen took the matter in hand. Our borough population, being under 2000, prevents a Fire Board being constituted under the Fire Brigades Act and its amendments. Other towns, much smaller thanFoxton, have very efficient volunteer fire brigades in their midst which have rendered great service in the saving of public life and property.

Dk Ci.kary writes again to the Wellington Post on the question ot religious instruction in State Schools. This communication is lengthy and redundant, and little attention is paid to the crucial point of the discussion —the justification of his Lordship’s contention that the secular system of education is “dogmatic,” “sectarian” and “denominational.” He merely reiterates his belief that the system is to be so classed, and adds: “If you have the courage to accept my challenge, you yourself will furnish the further justification of my belief.” The Post declines Dr Cleary’s challenge to propound a “philosophy of life,” and proceeds: “In unphilosophical language Dr Cleary’s aim may be said to be to' prove that the secular system of State education was devised by the enemies of religion in Europe and elsewhere, and that those who support it must accept the responsibility for the wickedness of its origin and of the principles which it embodies. It not atheists themselves, they are tarred with the same brush and working -to the same end. It would be easy to confront Dr. Cleary with an array of authority as eminent as his own, and just as little liable to the charge of atheism, in opposition to his contention that our secular system of primary education ‘ represents one well-defined lorm ot atheism —the negative form — forced upon the pupils by positive legislative enactment.’ Mr Gladstone was not an atheist, yet he declared that the secular system seemed to him ‘ impartial, and not, it fairly worked, in any degree unfriendly to religion.’ Archbishop Temple - was not an atheist, yet he wrote: ‘Secular schools would not be irreligious. I am by no means sure that on the whole they would not be more religious.” Dr Parker was notan atheist, yet in a letter in which he declared that ‘no education can be complete which does not include thoroughj religious training,’ he added that l as a citizen, I deny that it is the business of the State to furnish a complete education.’ The reason which he gave for this denial was ‘ simply the old Noucomformist reason, that religion is personal, sacred, varying its aspects and claims according to various convictions, and that to support it by rates and taxes, ana thus by possible penalties, is to vex and offend its characteristic and essential spirit.’ Dr Parker’s statement, perhaps, sums up as accurately as a single sentence could ‘ the philosophy of life ’ upon which an overwhelming majority of the people of New Zealand have arrived, without any sympathy with atheism, at what Dr Cleary is pleased to condemn as an atheistic conclusion. Fortified by the authorities we have cited, and by the consciousness that it is not hostility to religion but a regard lor it, and an appreciation of the mischiefs which its entanglement with politics has brought about, that inspires their support of the State school system, the people ot New Zealand will not be scared by these odious imputations from a policy which they have now seen in sqccesslnl operation for more than thirty years.”