The Daily News MONDAY, DECEMBER 14. RELIGION IN SCHOOLS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 299, 14 December 1908, Page 2

The Daily News MONDAY, DECEMBER 14. RELIGION IN SCHOOLS.

Less than forty years ago in all the colonics of Australasia what was known as the denominational system of education prcvaibd. t luuj- liiat system, religious instruction being held a primary consideration, Hie cilucalion of the young was in the hands of the crunches. Each denomination had its school comlimlce, and giants were made by the Stale in proportion to the known sireng'ili oi the denominations. As might, b.- expected the four great di\ision» of tne L'uristian Church, the Church of England, tile Roman Catholics, the U'eslcyaiis and Presh\ tcrians, alone were represented. The utner sects were ton ucai; to all'urd the luxury of having schools of their own. In even litlie lo.vnship. every iitilc village, thei'c would he four schools, and, however a parent niigat dill'cr, tile best he eoiiiil do was to send his children to the sciloul ol the denomination most closely a.vdmihucd to his own bcl.cf. As is the case willi capital, so it was with religion

—-to ibos,. who iiavc much shall be given." .Apart I'loiu the religious dilliculty there was the obvious waste and inefficiency of the system. At least lour schools had to be piovidcii, kept in repair, maintained, four separate committees were working, and four stall's ol teachers were employed. Necessarily, more teachers were maintained than llie work required, and necessarily also the standard of the teachers—-from an educational point of view—was low. from every point of view it was a wasteful and essentially a had system. Very little consideration was required to show thai tile denominational system was inequitable, inasmuch as it was impossinlc In .extend every division iuio j which the Christian Uuircli was unliapp.ly divided tile same advantages. it tended to accentuate religious differences. Financially, it was extravagant; administratively it "was complicated and toublesoine; in efficiency n was absolutely rotten. No mere patching up would meet the necessities of such a case, and so it was divided to sweep the system out of existence altogether. In 1871 the first free, secular and compulsory Education Bill in Australasia, was submitted to the Victorian Parliament, and passed into law. In 1577, under the auspices of the Hon. C. C. Bowcn, now the Speaker of our Legislative Council, the Parliament of New Zealand followed suit, and to-day in all these southern lands the principle of free, secular and compulsory education prevails. It is all very well for certain people to denounce our education system as "Godless,' but it would be well For them to remember the injustice, the difficulties, the burdens, and the failure to achieve adequate results under a denominational system of education. These relleetioiis have been suggested by the spectacle presented in th*. | Motherland to-day. In these colonies, j with limited populations, with people j energetic in nature and advanced in i ideas, it was, comparatively, an easy iask lo sweep away an effete and un-

satisiactory system and start on cn-t-rt-'iy new lines. The position is different in an old la mi like the .Motherland. There the power of the establishment, like a tradition, has come down through the ages ami cannot lie lightly thrown oil'. In England bishops occupy ■seats in the House of Lords. What would be thought in any one. of these colonies if it were seriously proposed to appoint leaders of denominations to seats in the Legislative Council» In England, the Church controls most of the schools. It i s li;r|||.i„,, f or Uia.l control now, The Conservative Govern incut of Mr. lialfour introduced and earned through Parliament an educational measure so obnoxious to the great nonconformist body that a stonewall, i wall of stolid 'resistance which would have necessitated the taking of legal proceedings against millions (1 f Ids Majesty's subjects, was threatened. The Liberal Government have submitted two incisures, anil have sought by making i-omc.-sums ami compromises, 'to , M >t a Bill through, 'j'hev have failed. "'lTiev are beginning to realise bow extremely ilillicnlt it is to patch a system that is '"I'M Oy bad. Assuredly a time will come when it will dawn upon the minds of the statesmen of England thai, there is m> eoursc open to them but. to tear out a leaf or two from the statute books of her enterprising children in llr sonthcrn seas. iin ,l |„. altogether doll" with attempts at, concession aM I eomimnnise.