“COMIC OPERA”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 414, 24 July 1928, Page 16

“COMIC OPERA”

“NO NEW ARGUMENT,” SAYS CANON JAMES

REPLY TO DR. BUXTON

“Dr. Buxton’s latest letter brightens the Bible-in-Schools controversy with a touch of comic opera. He proudly struts the stage in the dress of Admiral Beatty, and wishes me to don a German uniform. This new feature may be magnificent, but it is not argument. As a matter of fact, Dr. Buxton is angry because I will not allow him to conduct my case as well as his own.”

So writes Canon James in a continuation of the Bible-in-Schools controversy. He continues: “He complains that I ignore the question of the cost to the Homan Catholics of their own schools. But we have been authoritatively told from his side that this has nothing to do with the Roman Catholic opposition to the Religious Exercises in Schools Bill. In quoting Bishop Cleary, may I say how sincerely I regret the injury from which he is suffering, and offer my best wishes for his speedy and complete recovery? His Lordship definitely stated in his recent address in St. Patrick’s Cathedral that the Bible-in-Schools question was considered by the Catholic Episcopate to be “apart altogether from the question of grants to our schools.” STATE AID CLAIMED “Previously he had said the same thing: ‘Religious exercises or no religious exercises,’ the demand for State aid would be pressed. Hr. Buxton’s quarrel is with Parliament, and not with the Bible-in-Schools League. Ever since the national school system was established in New Zealand, the Roman Catholics have persistently demanded State aid for their schools; and Parliament has persistently refused to subsidise denominational schools. This claim for State aid was made before the Bible-in-Schools League was born; and would continue unabated if the Religious Exercises Bill was finally rejected or withdrawn. The fact is that, Bible or no Bible, the Roman Catholic authorities will have nothing to do with our national schools. “They object to the national system of education as a whole. It has been their fixed policy to keep Roman Catholic children out of the State schools. In tliis policy they have been so thorough that the Roman Catholics form less than five per cent, of the State school population. Dr. Buxton chooses to describe this as a ‘great national contribution’ to our New Zealand educational system. “LET THE JURY DECIDE” “Dr. Buxton asserts that I am calling for a referendum of the people •from whom I wish to suppress the facts.’ But this controversy has been going on for nearly half a century. Can anyone now produce a new fact, a new idea, a new opinion? Everything that can be said has been said over and over again. Each side has stated its case many times. Let us now give the jury—the people of New Zealand — the opportunity of delivering its verdict. Dr. Buxton and his friends tell us that the Bible-in-Schools movement is merely a clerical agitation, that its proposals have been rejected by the electors, that its figures are a fraud. If so, Dr. Buxton need not fear a referendum. Indeed, he should welcome it. Wo all recognise that the question must be settled in accordance with the will of the people. Surely the time has come for giving the people an opportunity of expressing their will in a direct and unmistakable manner.” PERCIVAL JAMES.