BIBLE TEACHING IN STATE SCHOOLS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1017, 13 July 1911, Page 4

BIBLE TEACHING IN STATE SCHOOLS.

An up to-date review and appeal by the Yen. Archdeacon Willis, Cambridge. Article V. THE EXCELLENCE OF THE NEW SOUTH WALES system. ; In the fourth article of this series I named the chief objections that are are usually made to having Bible teaching made part of the school system ; and showed how all of them have been satisfactorily answergd. I kept the best answer, however, till the last, namely, the N.S.W. system of religious teaching. This is a system which has been in full working order in the Stale of New South Wales for over forty years ; and in other States of the Commonwealth for shorter periods. It, moreover, gives practically universal SATISFACTION IN ITS WORKING. I shall now proceed to set out shortly some of its excellent features. 1 have adopted for the most part, the wording of one or other of several replies given by the Department of Public Instruction in New South Wales to enquiries which have been made from New Zealand. The only exception to this is the opening sentence of the next paragraph which is a quotation from clause 7 of the N.S.W. Education Law.

GENERAL INSTRUCTION (N.S.W.) “Id all schools the teaching shall be strictly uou-sectarian, but the words "“secular instruction” shall be held to include General Religious Teaching as distinguished from dogmatic or polemical theology.” “This religious teaching is placed on exactly the same footing as geography, grammar, or any other subject. At the annual inspection of schools the failure of any class to reach the standard in Scripture would tell against the teacher just as satisfactory work would tell in his favour.” “The Irish National Board’s Scripture lesson books are regularly read.” TEACHERS AND PARENTS (N.S.W.) “All teachers irrespective of creed are required to teach these Scripture lessons ; and in no case has any refusal to do so taken place, nor has complaint ever been made to the Department that the lessons have been ridiculed or made light of. The regulations allow a parent to withdraw his children from all religious instruction by notifying his wish in writing to the teacher. As a matter of fact such notifications are so few that for statistical purposes they may be said not to exist.”

SPECIAL INSTRUCTION (N.S.W.) “Outside this general religious instruction the Act provides for what is called “Special Religious Instruction.’’ Any recognised clergyman) or other teacher authorised by his church, has the right to give to the children of his owu denomination one hour’s religious instruction daily. Unlike the general instruction this may consist of worship and purely sectarian teaching. It is given during the ordinary school hours.” In all cases the pupils receiving such religious instruction are separated from the other pupils ol the school.” “The opportunity thus afforded is largely availed of by the principal denominations.” THE LATEST STATISTICS (N.S.W.) “The number ot visits paid during 1910 by authorised teachers of the various denominations for the purpose of giving special religious teaching is given below : Denomination No. of Children Visits. Enrolled. Ch. of England 25,209 116,090 Roman Catholic 840 3E755 Presbyterian 7,1 32 25,478 Methodist 8,430 3°,°34 Other Denominations 5.094 iS.fSo Totals 46,705 218,537 It will thus be seen that the opportunities given are made most use of by those termed “Other Denominations,” the Presbyterians come next, and then in order the Methodists, the Church of England, and the Roman Catholics. GENERAL RESULTS (N.S.W.) “In case of the non-attendance of any clergyman or religious teacher during any portion of the period agreed to be set apart for religious instruction, such period shall be devoted to the ordinary secular instruction in such school.” “There are no sectarian difficulties in working the clauses providing tor general or special religious instruction, because the system has always formed part of the school routine ; and probably only a very small per centage ot parents would like a change made, unless it were in the direction ot giving more and not less religious teachiug. The general outcome of the instruction is, that all pupils receive a substantial knowledge of Scripture history, and are made acquainted with the moral teaching contained in the Bible.” The tollowiug report regarding the N.S.W. system is from a Queensland newspaper ; inspector’s report (n.s.w.) Mr A. Eobban, Senior Inspector of Schools, N.S.W., who has been an officer of the Department for 45 years, and who is an elder of the Presbyterian Church, wrote recently; “I know nothing that has done so much to remove sectarian bitterness and religious misunderstanding between members of the various churches as the possession of this inestimable privilege in the Public Schools of this State.,

The teachers are selected without reference to their religious denomination, and never interfere with each others religious belief. Children of various denominations are ranged side by side in the classes, and read the Scripture lessons together, but no reference to churches is allowed. When they separate to go for religious instruction to their Pastors, no more notice is taken of the fact by the pupils than if the class had been broken into sections for special instruction in secular work.” The same newspaper gives REPORTS FROM WESTERN AUSTRALIA regarding a like system to that of New South Wales. The InspectorGeneral of Schools (W.A.) states : ‘‘No sectarian difficulty has been found by the Department in the working of the system. The State school teachers find no difficulty worth mentioning either in giving the non-sectarian religious teaching, or in relation to the visits ot Ministers of religion for special instruction classes during school hours. Less than five per cent, of the children have been withdrawn from the non-sectarian religious instruction.” The PRESIDENT OF THE TEACHERS’ UNION

(W.A.) writes: “I was an opponent to the introduction of the system, as I thought it would tend to brand distinctions that would not be pleasant, but so far as I can see alter seven years’ experience my fears had no foundation in fact. Your Queensland teachers have nothing to fear in the introduction of religious instruction, but will have an added lever to raise the young lives to the high ideals they so much desire.” THE TESTIMONY OF TASMANIA. The Director of Education states: “The system is accepted by all denominations as a happy solution of the religious difficulty.” In my next article I shall advocate that all Christian bodies in the Dominion unite together to demand the same thing, and to require that the question of the adoption or otherwise of the N.S.W. system be submitted to a special vote of the people of the Dominion. COMMON AMONG MINERS. “ Like many other miners, I contracted a severe cold through coming out of the hot mine into the cool air,” says Mr W. Crouch, of Tabina street, Broken Hill, N.S.W., “ and at night I would get an awful tickling in the throat and chest, but Chamberlain’s Cough Remedy was the means of giving immediate relief from it and quickly cured my cold. No other medicine was able to do this, and I had many bottles from the doctor.” For sale everywhere. —Advt.