CORRESPONDENCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2448, 1 July 1922, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

Sir, —Will you allow me space in your valuable columns to call attention to one -of those little details which, having been overlooked, appears to he responsible for more than one would imagine,—it is merely the . absence of a mirror in the .ladies’ cloak-room of our up-to-date Municipal Hall. The importance of this small accommodation is evidently not realised by the proprietors who I contend are out to encourage attendance at the hall and to cater for the amusement and enjoyment of the public. Owing to the unusually small number of ladies at a recent ball held in the Town Hall, I made a few descrete inquiries as to “Why you were not at the dance last night?” and was surprised at the number of replies similar to this: —“Well I intended going, I knew the music would be nice, but it was a little windy and there isn’t so much as a looking-glass in the cloak-room by which one can tidy their hair, and you can’t always carry your dressing table with you.” Keen business men have always admitted the value of the mirror, even wlmre men arc concerned, and in suggesting one for the ladies’ cloak-room, I think it would be a profitable investment for our Town ITall. I am, Sir, REFLECTOCR A y T. > i THE SOUTH AFRICAN CONCORDAT. STATE TEACHERS AND CHURCHES CONFER ON BIBLE IN SCHOOLS. * (To the Editor.) Sir, —As the leading churches in New Zealand are moving to get a new Bible-in-schools platform framed which will he mox*e adapted to New Zealand conditions, the fol(lowing extract taken from a letter in the “London Times” supplement, 25th March 1922, is of interest. Extract. —“The South Afi-iean Federation airived at a Concordat on religious teaching in 1910, which might well form a model for a similar scheme in England to-day. As a "result of an agreement between lie Anglican Provincial Synod and raie Dutch Reformed Church Synod a commission was appointed, with representatives from the following I bodies: —Anglican, Dutch, Baptist, Congregational, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Wesleyan, and from the two Teachers’ Unions, i.e., Dutch and English speaking. After several months’ Session a syllabus of Scripture lessons was agreed upon by the ministers of all these denominations. This was submitted to the State and in 1910 was ratified and passed by the Union Parliament for use in all the State Schools. Opposition came from a very small Unitarian and Secularist minority, but this case was met' by a special conscience .clause. Here is an agreed settlement which has worked satisfactorily in 6outh Africa for 12 years.” The Education Commission set up in South Africa declares in favour of Scripture instructui’e but reported unfavourably, or against, local School Committee control of religious instruction. (See “Times” Educational Supplement, 4th June 1912). This last paragraph should be noted as New Zealand school Committees control, to an extent, religious instruction in schools under the Nelson system. The fact that nearly. 70 per cent, of parents voted for religious instruction in schools at the polls taken in 1921-2, in Wellington, is an indication that public opinion is against the present purely secular system of National education. ' The leading educationalists of Great Britain have declared recently for the use of the Bible in schools, and their decisions have been backed up by the “London Times,” 10th November, 1921. See leading article in Litex*ary Supplement; also see the report of the Department Committee on the Teaching of English in England, procurable from H. M. Stationery Office, No. 115 Imperial House, Kingsway, London, W.C.2. AN OBSERVER.