THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1912. BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10713, 13 December 1912, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1912. BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

We 'make no apology for (returning to thia subject. A section of the Church is conducting an active crusade in favour of the introduction of the Bible into the State schools of the Dominion, and it is the duty of the Press, as guardians of the public weal, to place the position so clearly that the people will not be led. into .diasaster by tho machinations of glibtonguod orators, or the specious arguments of ecclesiastical propagandists. First let us say .that we do not for a moment doubt the :sincerity of those who claim that Bible-reading in schools would have a salutary effect upon the morals of the rising generation. It is tins very .sincerity ' which renders it necesasary to expose the dangers which would attend the change in" our education system that it is sought to bring about. We are told 1 that the people should :.-r given an opportunity of deciding tb° question by .referendum. Tho great m»asy of the people, however; nave . not displayed any enthusiasm on the subject. They have not been given a full opportunity of considering it, and they are not in a position to give an intelligent vote. Assuming, however, that the subject had been a burning one for years, and t ■; nothing had been left unsaid that could be said on either side, there remains the overwhelming plea that. on matters pertaining to conscience, the majority lias no moral Tight to dictate to the .minority. Let ns assume, for a moment, that the majority in the land were Mohammedans or Buddhists, as they a,re in India. Would the Christian community submit to : a plebiscite on the question of whether their religious dogma was to be permitted in the schools? Or,, if the majority were, infidels, or freethinker*), would the Church, in those circumstances, bo prepared to take a referendum on the question of whether the tenets of agnosticism should form part of the school curricula? Most .assuredly not. But, coming back to the main consideration of Bible-teaching in the ah- , stract. Why is it considered necessary to impart- religious instruction in the State schools? Do our Churches, aclmifc that thoir efforts to

direct the minds of the young into religious channels have absolutely | failed? Jf they do not, why do tlioy ' seek tho aid of the State in the matter? It is a remaika ble, but nono tho less striking coincidence that while a small section of the people in tho overseas possessions are striving to insert the- thin end of tho 1 wedge of denominationalism into our I system of education' —for tluvt is what Bible-reading assuredly means —tho evils of denominational teaching aire so apparent in the Motherland that the people are clamouring for the introduction of the secular system. But, someone will say,, wo have already admitted the right of denominational! teaching, by permitting tho Roman Catholics to have separate schools? Yi\s, the State has undoubtedly sanctioned denominational teaching to this extent. But it has placed no obstacle in the way of tho Anglicans or the Nonconformists having similar institutions. If the Protestants defiro denominational schools, let them provide them, and maintain them in the same way as do the Roman Catholics. Tt would bo intolerable, however, if the State were to subsidise the Protestants, as j it is proposed to do under the Bible-in-schooh' system', partly at the expense of the Roman Catholic community, and refuse a similar subsidy to tho Roman, or Mormon, or other separate institutions. Moreover, harmless though the text-book might be, it is impossible to give complete extracts from the Bible that would satisfv the whole of the dissenting Churches, let alone tho Roman Catholics, who represent a not inconsiderate section of our school attendance. It will he urged that the conscience clause would meet objections under this heading. But how would such a clause operate When the sole teacher in a school was a. Roman Catholic, or a Jew, or an Agnostic? Are we going to compel the whole, of our teachers to be Protestants and Christian Tjelievers? Such a proposition were unthinkable. Ift must also be remembered that our school j syllabus is already overcrowded;_ that I every moment of the school-day is ne- | cossary to do justice to secular instruction ; that the fohool hours in this country are much shorter than they are in Germany and other countries ; and that the teachers as a body are *strenuously opposed to the introduction of such a hipM-y controversial siibj£■-♦•. an religion in+o our State schools. There are other aspects of the Question wWh we must reserve for future discussion. Meanwhile, we warn those wl<n —-> opposed to religious strife and intolerance that thev hnv" n snerod dufv to perform in t.h'«'. mn+te.r. must combine immed'ntelv to resist the onslaught that is heme m-de imon our splendid secuib-v pastern by "lismiided, though oossiblv sincere ecclesiastics.