The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DALY AT FOUR O' CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, MARCH 12, 1877.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2552, 12 March 1877, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DALY AT FOUR O' CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, MARCH 12, 1877.

At the last meeting of -the; Central Board of Education tbe subject of religious instruction has again cropped up, and as the rujles laid down by the Board" will guide and govern the whole of the Provincial District of Auckland, tbe question is one which concerns ourselves no less than the Auckland clergy and' laity who brought it forward. The question of religious insii action has now assumed a different, or rather a fresh phase. Ifc is nowj. not whether religious instruction may be given out of school hours.to the children of such parents as wish them to receive it, but whether— jthe ordinary lessons of the day being over—the* roaster or mistress should dismiss the children on the chance of then 1 re-a.«sembling some few.-minutes afterwards to be taught, by the clergyman ov, some one duly appointed. The question has been raised in this way. It is found as a matter of practice a tolerably ea3y thing to keep children in school, when they are once there, but not so easy a thing to re-assemble them when once d'Sr missed, especially if they know, that their ordinary master is not there, and he who wiH instruct them is possessed of at the best but a liiile brief: authority. So strongly is this felt that in a memorial addressed to the Board on this subject the memorialists state,, "that any dispersion and re-assembling of children at the schools would prove wholly detrimental to voluntary efforts now put forth to impart knowledge of Holy Scripture." On this question the Board were divided, and different members took different views of the matter. Mr Luckie thought that the matter came under rul^ 14, which provided for the dismissal of the school in a particular way. It was obt vious that if this was the case the prayer of the memorialists could not be granted, as the children could not be forced to stay during tbe time devoted to religious instruction,; and, therefore, if the 14th rule was arbitrary on this point they, would of necessity be dismissed at tie close of the 1 ordinary"work. The' chairman (Mr Lusk) suggested that: the difficulty might be got over by having religious instruction "before school assembles ; " what he probably meant to say.was that the school might assemble at an earlier hour for the purpose of religious instructions, as the idea of giving instruction of any kind before those for whom it was intended had assembled, would be a matter-: of. some, difficulty. Mr Dignan thought the Act meant to exclude all religious teaching whatever, forming his conclusion, apparently, noi from the Act itself but from such ideas as piust have got possession of Mr Chamberlain, M.P.,who, atLeedslateJy, is reported to have said.thatthe Church was the great bar to the education of the people. Colonel Haultain said that nearly all people are in favour of having religious instruction, which! is no doubt true, and then said that nobody could agree as to the character of it. The remainder of: this remark was needless, for it. was the very rock on which the friends of religious education first split. No one, or at any rate a very small minority, objected to religious education; theobjection was to the form of education which might be used.and as notwoor three parties could agree they came to the conclusion, somewhat savoring of the dog in the mangei-, that it would be better to have no foi'm at all than one they didn't approve of. In other words it was as if each had said, "If you won't let me get what I want, you shan't gei what you want." With free access allowed to ministers of all denominations it seems tbat.it would be an easy matter so to adjust affairs that two hours in every week might be set apart for rsligious iustruction.. Tho clergy could surely agree among themselves which two hours would suit best, or if all could not agree then in this as in other questions the minority would hare to yield to the majority. There are few parents, we believe, of such atheistical opinions that they would object to any kind of religious instruction, even that in accordance with their own views, and the matter might thus be satisfactorily arranged. At any rate the question has been raised once, and will most likely, be brought forward again. This question does not much concern the teachers. If decided one way it may cause them a little more trouble, if in the other a little less. There was a question also brought forward which does concern them, and that was the question of what part teachers should lake in politics. This arose from it being stated that some teachers of schools had been appointed Chairmen of County Councils. Now, as long as he does his duty in school hours there seems no reason why a schoolmaster should be forbidden to take part in politics, any more than any other person. It may, and frequently is, especially in small communities, very injudicious of him to do so, but still there seems no reason why the fact ■ of his beiDg a teacher should incapacitate

him from using such abilities as he has on behalf of the district, it might bo to its. advantage. The real point at issue, apart from the question of advisability, is whether his. taking part in politics—such, for"'instance! as^acting as County Chair-, inau— will be: directly detrimenial to the interesls of the school, apart from the question of whether it will be indirectly detrimental in other ways. In the case of two teachers this can be shown to be the case, as it is stated that tbey would have to leave their school duties for some, hours to attend to their political duties, and that being so, the Board, we think, would be wanting in- their duty if they did not step in and insist on the proper time being devoted to school work. On the other hand, if this is not the case, it seems difficult for the Board to interfere, whatever they may think, any more than could an employer interfere with the manner in which an employe of his chose to pass his time not devoted to business. The Board may, indeed, express an opinion, and a strong one too, if they like, as to the undesirability of the practice, and in most cases deference would be paid to it, but at this point it must stop. -