RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN SCHOOLS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3675, 6 August 1927, Page 2

RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN SCHOOLS.

PETITION AGAINST THE BILL

A petition from the Educational Institute asking that the Religious Exercises in Schools Bill he not allowed to pass was presented by Mr. 11. Atinore (Nelson) in the House of Representatives on Thursday.

The petition submits: That the measure is uneducational, the proposed system of reading without comment being contrary to the principles of education and being capable of doing little good; that it is unnecessary, the Nelson system affording a means of giving instruction of greater value than that proposed in the Bill; that it is antisocial, as in view of the acuteness pertaining to religious differences, there is the greatest reason to fear that the harmonious relations of communities will be disturbed; that it is politically unjust, as it is proposed to use the funds for maintaining a kind of education which a part of the citizens repudiate; that it is politically dangerous, for if the Bill were passed it will so strengthen the claim and increase the numbers of those who ask for State grants for denominational schools, that their political influence will become too powerful to be resisted, while the community will thus suffer the grievous injury of the breakdown of the present system; that it is injurious to teachers ns many teachers will be debarred from taking part in the prescribed exercises and will therefore be subject to personal obloquy and to undeserved discrimination in the making of appointments.