South Canterbury Times, THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2564, 9 June 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 1881.

A meeting is called for to-morrow evening to take a plebiscite on -the Bible-in-Schools question. It is simply an attack on what our contemporary calls the present system of Godless education.” The phrase is not original. It has been used times out of number, but it is, nevertheless, a most' unfair way of stating the case. Religion if? not introduced into the affairs of everyday life. How misleading it would bo to call the vocation of the draper, the grocer, or the grain merchant a Godless occupation. It is simply a catchword to entrap the unwary and unthinking, There is nothing Godless in the three R’s. There is something in a name, a fact which the Bible-in- . Schools people have not been slow to recognise. However, it is only just to say that there is nothing unfair in the manner by which they intend to obtain the feeling of the community on a question which after all more effectually interests the mass of humanity than the Representation Bill or any other subject which is brought more prominently under the notice of the public. The question is, will the proposed plebiscite really furnish us with a correct view of the opinions of the majority ? Under ordinary circumstances it most undoubtedly would, but this question of religious teaching is many-sided. There arc few who would object to their children receiving religious teaching, but we are quite certain that the hulk of colonists would object to the introduction of such a discordant element into the public schools. The result would probably be that it would wreck the whole education system of the colony. The South Canterbury Bible-in-Schools Association is-asking people to decide upon a purely naked question. In this matter it is the surroundings which are the essentials. If we were all of one faith there would be no difficulty in dealing with the subject. It would he settled speedily one way or the other, and that probably without the display of much acrimony. However, the colony is split up into sects, each holding different religious views. It even cannot be said that the members of any one particular sect are unanimous on the Bible-in-Schools question. By introducing religious instruction into the Slate schools, the colony would be entering upon a sea of troubles, and the education bark would be certain to become a wreck on the jagged rocks of sectarianism. Now, a word of advice to the heads of families. At the ballot box in the choice of representatives for the Legislature, the great majority of the electors of New Zealand have declared in favor of the .Education Act. There have been no indications of any radical change in the views of the majority—nothing to lead anyone to suppose that colonists are dissatisfied with the present scheme, save that it is rather expensive, but that is a matter of administration, not of principle. In a few days householders will be asked if they are in favor of Bible reading in schools. There will be little use in saying " Y. s." if they are not prepared to back, their opinions at the moment for action, aim veto only for the. election of those who will endeavor in the Parliament of the colony to destroy the secular principles of the

Education Act; -I 1 hat .is the plain way of at tHis .Texhd.question.j .The sickly, : h;alT-hqarted support which' may be given of the plebiscite, will only tend to/fcompliclffo mpterfi'f It will to the de^ ‘which tipsy will be the more able to keep the country in a state of agitation on the Education question. 'The person who responds to the call of . the South Canterbury Bible-in-Schools Association, should be consistent ‘arid not' stultify’himaelf at the next general election. There is an old song, the* refrain of which is “ learn to say ‘ No.’ ” By bearing that excellent advice in mind, parents of the rising generation will save the colony a large amount of trouble of the most exasperating description.