NATIONAL EDUCATION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 20, 24 January 1870, Page 2

NATIONAL EDUCATION.

To the Editor of the Nelson Evening Mail. Sik — The question touching the introduction of the religious element into our public schools having been ventilated in the Nelson newspapers for some time past, has necessarily caused it to become to some extent a subject of thought and conversation, and it is felt to be one of considerable importance to us as a community. Will you be good enough to assist in the still further ventilation of the subject by giving the two enclosed extracts a place in the Evening Mail. The first is the decision of the Baptist Union meeting held at Leicester last September, and the | second is part of an address by the Rev. Thomas Binney at the opening of the Bishop Storford Grammar-schools in September, 1868. I am, &c, Henky* Drew. •'A resolution relating to a national system of unscetarian education led to an earnest and prolonged discussion, and ultimately it was resolved to submit tlie whole of the resolutions to a committee for revision. The committee consisted of Drs. Angus, Gotch, and Underwood ; Keys. J. Bigwood, Green, S. J. Brown, T. Matthews, G. W. Humphries, and S. Chapman. The Session then adjourned to Thursday morning to receive report of committee. On that day the Session resumed its sitting, when the revised form of the resolutions on education was brought up, and the whole of the following most important resolutions were passed with scarcely a hand held up against them. The first resolution was passed in three clauses as follows : — " 1. (a) That inasmuch as her Majesty's Government have expressed their intention to deal with the question of primary education in the next Session of Parliament, this Union declares that it can regard no system of Government education as satisfactory in which teaching is not confined to secular knowledge. (6) That schools which are sustained by Government should be under the management of a local board, and be subject to Government inspection and control, (c) That when school accommodation has been provided the State or the local authorities shall have power to compel the attendance of children of suitable age not otherwise receiving education."---"2. That in prospect oi the great educational changes which are likely to take place in this country, the Union calls upon the pastors, the deacons, and the members of our churches to address themselves with increased earnestness and vigor to the religious instruction of the young — not only of those who belong to our congregations, but oi the neglected masses who lie beyond."

*- : A eeport was current in Auckland on the 19th inst. that the übiquitous Te Kooti was within eight miles of the diggers' camp at Ohinemuri and tbat he intended to go down and attack the Europeans. The diggers were about nil night, making preparations for their own defence and the greatest excitement prevailed. Mary Karu, the sister of Te Hira, had warned the Europeaus that if they did not leave tbey would be driven away, and, as a beginning, was said to have turned off a surveyor who was •engaged in laying out a township, threatening to pitch his instrnments into the river.