IMPORTANT SPEECH.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10161, 10 February 1911, Page 5

IMPORTANT SPEECH.

I BY THE MINISTER FOR EDUCA- ■[■ TIQN. .:.- By Telegravti—rreM 'Association. /AUCKLAND, Last Night. * An .important, speech; was made by the Minister for Education at the opening of the Grey Lynn School this afternoon. The Minister, after referring to the-progress of education un--1 der .the national, free, secular, and compulsory system, said he had alj ways avoided anything in the nature ■ of political partisanship in Vthe fl dI ministration of the. department. Many political opponents had pu'bj licly testified to this fact.' It was true there had been agitations in favour of introducing Bible lessons, but at election times the" greater mass of the people had been unmistakably in favour of maintaining the 1 existing system, which had served . j the country so well. / The! present Government" stood by.-'.the present .system. Personally,' he stood' un- : "'equivocally for maintenance of the..-; /existing 'system. ./ißathei/thari/he/'fa'' } / party/to,. any > -fundamental change .'< he-wotdd prefer -being"-excluded . gether 1 ! from the public life of the - Dominion. ', The will of the people must prevail. The democracy of this country would look .at any proposal tending to take us back to the dangerous and unsatisfactory bypaths of denominationalism from winch we escaped after much tribulation'in 1877.