THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1913. BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 4 February 1913, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1913. BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

The time has arrived when tlu; effort that is being made by the ecclesiastics of this Dominion to disturb our education system must be fought, with the gloves off. "The movement, it must be l>onie in mind, Has not originated from the parents themselves. The League, is composed almost entirely of clergymen; the organiser is an Anglican clergyman; the lecturers are clergymen ; the newspaper advo-. cate.s are clergymen. Ts this, in itself, not sufficient to arouse -the suspicions of the laity in the countryP Why are the Protestant clergymen, with a few very worthy "exceptions, so eager to upon the State a, responsibility which. rightly belongs to themselves? As Mr John Caughiey, president, of tho New Zealand Education Institute, pointed out in a recent article on the subject, the most that Canon Garland ran tell lis in favour .of this scheme as it works, in New South Wales is that it .has existed for 50 years, that it ha.s caused "'no friction." Ciinon .Garland never attempts to show how "ninth' good the system lia.s produced': ho -'never attempts to show why there is no friction ; he never attempts to show what the real working of "tho system is. He has never told 'half ' the truth about the [New South Wales systemLet us supplement tho suspiciously meagre information he gives us. The Bible is not in the State schools in Now South Wales; there are only some extracts, many of them rewritten improvements on the Serinture texts. Th,in '.abridged, mutilated Bible, like the Queensland book, must have this, that, and the other section left out for fear of sectarian-disputes and doctrine difficulties. Thus the first result of the State's interference with religion is to abridge and rewrite the Bible and present, it to children in a form which cannot he productive of revere nee for the Bible itself. Then the system directs that oven these meagre, portions shall not bo read except as a geography book is read. Tho teacher must only explain the verbal meaning. He e-annot use the lesson to inlluence the life and-'character of the children. He Hi.usfc not omnifont oil it in any

way. Tims there is "o friction, but the Scripture passages are completely secularised. A\ n Jvat possible effect cnn .such a lessen have on the lives ol the children? Teachers can, and do, draw more valuable moral lessons from fairy •stories and biography than the State allows them to draw from the Scriptures. What a degraded position in which to put the Bible, or any part of it! Then, again, there i, no conscience clause for teachers. Can mi Garland, : in spite of his flattery of teachers, says this would wreck the scheme. Tims many teachers who do not believe in the Bible or in ■some portions of it are enforced, under pain of dismissal, to read to and with the children, and impress 011 the memories of the children passages they themselves do not believe. Such teachers have to ho hypocrites or leave the service. Is this why there is 110 friction? A Jew, a Unitarian, or other conscientious person, who docs not believe in the New Testament must read it to the children. Probably a majority of teachers could read the lessons agreeably, but it is 110 slight upon teachers to say that, apart from those mentioned above, many are utterly indifferent to the value of Scripture. What profit can result from many of the lessons conducted by teacher,s under compulsion who do not believe- in, or who do not care anything about, what they read? Again, under this system 0110 clause of the Act says that 110 -teacher may take part in any political or sectarian meeting. Further, he must not act as press correspondent, nor can lie be a lay preacher. So built on mutual suspicion is this whole system in which there is "no friction" that teachers have to be tied hand and foot, lest any ..semblance of denomina- ! tional bias should appear. It is difficult enough now to get good men to enter the teaching profession, but what must be the effect of thus curtailing a teacher's civil and religious liberty? Thus with regard to the Bible reading the whole business is so whittled down and hedged with restrictions, and hampered by denominational suspicions, that only the merest shadow is .left, and this is what the league calls 011 Christian people to fight for. Ihi.s is the Bible reading we should battle for. This is what will lift cur children from the "heathenism ' in which tho Church confesses she has loft them. But now welcome to the work of the ministers under the right of entry clause. They are under no restriction*, and we should look for some real religious instruction here. Canon Garland's only information .regarding the results of this part of the work is that there is "no friction." He does not tell us why. The reason is that the visits of ministers are so few and far between that friction would be impossll>.'p - . Th ° Anglican ministers in 1910 paid visits at the average rate of one visit per school per month in New I South Wales. The Methodists paid I one visit per. school in three months. The Presbyterians paid one visit ner school in three and a-half months. All other denominations put together •paid one visit per school in five months. As each minister can speak only to members of his own flock, ehilficn could only be reucliod at- most by one set of ministers. As these ministers do chiefly to teach children "the faith of tliciir .fathers," (even these far-sundered visits are mostly devoted to teaching mere children the doctrines of their church. How much result may we expect to find that these visits make on the life and character of the children? Tn the « ™ rt of the iNew -South Ay.al.es .Royal Commission 011 Education, published a' few years ago, the Commission reports that so few are the visits paid t.-o schools by the -ministers that the Department should is ?ue a circular drawing the attention ot the ministers of the various Churches to the fact- that thov have the privilege of entry to the schools.