Bible in Schools.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8194, 22 May 1906, Page 5

Bible in Schools.

At the meeting of tlie Wanganui Education Board last evening the question of Bible reading' at College-street School was again under consideration. A letter was received from Mr P. C. Freeth contending that the committee were committing a breach of the Act in that the curriculum was not entirely secular. A reply was received from the School Committee as follows : — " Palmerston North, May 15th, 1906. —The Chairman and members, Wanganui Education Board, Dear Sirs— We have .to acknowledge receipt of yours of May 3rd, enclosing copy of Mr P. C. Freeth's letter about the Bible leeeons in College street school. In reply we have to point out that Mr Freeth is in error when he says that Bible lessons are given " in actual school hours." The hours for beginning school work in College-street • school, as arranged by the committee and the headmaster, are : Mondays and Fridays, 9.15 a.m.; Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, 9a m. We would point out that by regulation 55 of your Board's regulations, approved by the Governor-in-Council, the arranging of the houio of the opening of the school for school work is left with the School Committee and the headmaster. The arrangements we have made meet the requirements of both the Education Act and your Board's regulations,' as the school closes at 3 30 p.m. on Mondays and Fridays instead of at 3.15 p.m. as on the other days. The Bible lessons given voluntarily by some of the teachers to the children of parents who wish it are thus out of schoool hours. "We submit, also, that in the arrangements we have made we. have onlv exercised powers definitely given io ■ as a School Committee by the Education Act, and by the regulations of the Board as approved by the Governor-m-Council. JNor can it be said that while our arrangements are within the terms ot the Education Act and the regulations they are not in accord with their spirit. The Act only prescribes two hours' consecutive teaching before noon, and then immediately states that the buildings may be used for other .purposes than those given in the syllabus " as the Committee may troiu time to time prescibe." This clearly gives, the Committee a free hand as to the giving the use of the school for Bible lessons before the hours for actual school work, as given m the syllabus, begin. 1 In order to ascertain the actual intentions of the Legislature in making this arrangement, three questions covering the matter under discussion were drawn up and submitted to the Hon C. C. Bowen, the Minister who had charge of the Education Act of 7 877 when it was before Parliament, 'j.o these questions Mr Bowen very courteously replied, and of course no man can speak with so much authority as Mr Bowen as to the intentions of the Act. The questions and answers are as follows : — 1. " Was it your expectation at the time of the pacing of the Education Act of 1877, of which you had charge, that, as the schools of the colony generally opened at 9 a.m., the requirement of two hours' consecutive secular teaching before noon would allow school committees, where they desired it, to arrange for Bible lessous between 9 and 9.30 a.m., and still leave time to comply with the requirements of the Act ? " To this question Mr Bowen replies : "Yes, the Legislature deliberately left the matter in the hands or the school committees." 2. " Would you, therefore, regard an arrangement by which Bible lessons are given by the teachers, to the children of parents who desire them, from 9 to 9.15 a.m., as in harmony

with the spirit of the Education Act? " To this Mr Bowen replies : " Certainly. The question was fully discussed while the Bill was in Committee." 3. "Would you still regard it as in keeping |with the spirit of the Education Act if this arrangement were only made on two clays of the week, so that on those days the school formally opened at $.15 a.m., while on the other three days it opened at 9 a.m., the quarter of an hour from 9 to 9.15 a.m. on the two days being reserved for voluntary Bible lessons ?" To this Mr Bowen replies: " Any such arrangement as you mention would, be quite in accordance with the spirit of the Education Act." Mr Bowen then adds *. "In fact this question was left to the school committees, so that every district should make its own arrangements." These statements of the Hon. Mr Bowen show that besides meeting the terms of the Education Act, the arrangements we have made are in the line of the intentions of the framers of

| the Act, and carry out its spirit. ! We are, in the name of College-street School Committee, Isaac Jolly, Chairman, William Stubbs, Hon. Secretary." The chairman of the Board stated that he had submitted the correspondence from Mr Freeth and the Collegestreet School Committee, as well as a report from the Chief Inspector, to the Board's solicitors. The following is the opinion of the Board's solicitors, Messrs Fftzherbert and Marshall, on the question : —" I have read the correspondence submitted to me in reference to the alteration of hours and the Bible lesson given from 9 to 9.15 on two mornings in the week before the ordinary school work commences at the above school. I understand that subject to compliance with the requirements of the statute and the regulations the Board leaves it to the Committee in each case to fix the hours of attendance, and within the above limits an alteration can be made in the hour for beginning school work on two days in the week, and as the alteration seems to have been made in the manner contemplated by the regulations and does not in my opinion contravene either the regulations or the statute, it does not seem open to objection. The Bible lessons are apparently given voluntarily by some of the teachers out of school hours and only to the children of parents who do not object to such lessons being given. Assuming, therefore, that the facts are correctly stated in the letters signed by the Chairman and Secretary of the College street school Committee, there has not been, in my opinion, any breach either of the Education Act or of the regulations, and accordingly there is nothing that requires the intervention of the Board. After a short discussion* the Board decided to forward a copy of the opinion to Mr Freeth and to the School Committee.