Bishop Cowie on Education.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 250, 2 October 1884, Page 2

Bishop Cowie on Education.

[Own correspondent.] Auckland, October 2. The Diocesan Synod was opened yesterday. Bishop Cowie, in his inaugural address, referring to the question of religious instruction in State schools, said :—“ It is my conviction that, but for the mutual jealousy of a comparatively small number of the population, the same willingness of parents that their children should receive religious instruction in Government schools would be found to exist throughout the colonies of Australasia. The readiness of a small minority of the population to withhold from their own children the religious teaching they approve, lest a majority should have their children taught that which they also prefer, is an instance of the illiberality and tyranny of the so-called unsectarian party. Their action is scarcely compatible with the Gospel rule to “ do unto others as ye would that they should do to you,” and it has been compared not inaptly to the decision of the false mother in the judgment of Solomon, who preferred the death of the child to leaving her rival in contented possession of her own.”