BIBLE-IN-SCHOOLS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 3 September 1913, Page 4

BIBLE-IN-SCHOOLS.

Ever since the inception of the movement to .take a referendum on* the question of Bible Reading in schools we have protested against it on principle. We have taken no exception to the Bible, nor to those who teach its precepts. But we have always maintained, and shall continue to maintain, that the parents and clergy have' no moral right to seek to cast any position of their responsibilities upon- the State school teachers 1 . There is a time and a place for all things. The place for Bible teaching is the home, the Church, and the Sabbath So far as the proposed Referendum is concerned, we shall protest against it with all the vigour we possess, not because we are afraid to trust the people, but because in matters of conscience, in matters affecting the religious beliefs of individuals, one section of the community has no right whatever to suggest what another shall do. In this connection, we deplore the fact that the Prime Minister, who is known to be a stickler for the "free, secular and compulsory" system, should have given a deputation of clerics an almost encouraging reply to the demand that a Referendum be taken. Those (members of Parliament .who shuffle on this important question will have to answer for it at the ballot box.