RELIGIOUS TEACHING IN SCHOOLS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1850, 15 May 1884, Page 3

RELIGIOUS TEACHING IN SCHOOLS.

On his arrival at Melbourne, Dr. Barry, the new Bishop of Sydney, was presented with an address. In reply, he said the questior of public instruction was mentioned in the nddiess, and he knew that it was one which occupied the minds of churchmen a great deal, jnore especially in this diocese. He did not think it would be all right to go into any details as to the method by which religious instruction in schools should be secured, but it appealed to him to bo one of the highest possible consequence that in some way it should be made a real and substnntial pait of the instruction given to children, as on this depended in a very great degree the future of a free community. He had some experience in England of public elcmentaiy education, more especially as a member of the London School Board, and what struck him most emphatically was the almost unanimous vcidict of the country in fa\our ot making religious instruction — that is, the Bible taught freely — an intepral part of the system of the public elemental y schools in London. A fairly eih'cicnt scheme framed for that purpose was largely adopted, and he was not aware that a single case of religious proselytism had manifested itself. In Birmingham, the home of the secular systum, they had actually been obliged to have the Bible lead in the schools from which they had formerly banished it. So fur as he knew, no denominational antagonism had ever intoifeied with the carrying out this work. If we could only get over political and sectarian difficulties here, he thought there was no ieason why the same gieat object should not be achieved here in exactly the same way. If the educational system of the country was bad in so far as the omission of religion was concerned, we should try, with all the means available, to make the best of it ; and when oppoitunity for altciation came, if the whole community were to woik harmoniously together, it might be altered foi the better This was a matter that concerned all chnichmen, and he would say all Christians— for lie hoped the laity would take as much inti'iest in it a.s even the cleigymen themselves.

A \ov\a officer in the Foui fcli Ficncb Kiiginecis, unstrung at the ide i of luiving to face a comt-martuil for some tuvial fault, tied a belt fillec 1 with dynamite lound liis waist, applied a match, and was litoially blown to pieces.

Ai'TUi more than a foitnight's -working \\ ithout the slighto-st hitch of any kind, the experiment of the direct el"etne lighting of one of the District Railway tiains between Kensington and Putney was claimed as a distinct success.

Onk of the £M ciitesb attractions for stiangcis who visit Washington City is a eolouied Cxtholic Church, one ot the most costly in the city, and resting on a solid financial basis. The choir, all colomed is regarded by the best judges as equal to that of any other city in the country. Tokio, Japan, has twelve Presbytci Mil churches. The Government daily paper ad\ eitises the Bible for sale. A large convocation of Buddhist piiests has been called at one of their famous temples for the purpose ot abolishing the ancient rules foi bidding the clergy to many or to eat flesh.

Cardinal Manvinu has issued au order that a branch of the Catholic Total Abstinence League of the Cross be founded in every Catholic school, and that the manager of such school must be President and an abstainer. He has worked an extraordinary change among the lii&h of Westminister, who, from being generally poor and thriftless, aic now prosperous.

Among the new applications of cotton is its u&o, in pait, in the eonstt notion of houses, the material employed for this pin pose being the refuse, which, when gtound up with about an equal amount of stiawand asbestos, is converted into a paste, and this formed into laige slabs or biicks, which acquire, it ib said, the hardness of stone, and furnishes a really \dhniblc building stock. Tiu.f4erm.au military authorities are about to make some experiments with a new system of aerial torpedoes. An oidinaiy mar-balloon, which may either contain an officer in charge or be despatched unattended, is fitted with an airangcment Mmmu 1 to that of toipedo boats, by means of which the torpedo is piojected upon the troops beneath. When the car is to have no human occupant it is filled with a clockwork anangement, which discharges the projectile at a given moment.

They have a peculiar way of managing railways in ptirts of Russia. The departme and arrivals of trims take place without any paiticular attention being paid to time. The communications by rail are often intciuptccl for days together. One train of goods went off one day all by itself, the drunken machinist ha\ing slipped off after ha\inp opened the regulator. This train dashed past the station like an insane comet, and stopped of its own accord when shoit of fuel.

From a report publisher! in the Indian Official Gazette it appears that the total number of peisons killed by wild animals and snakes in India last yeai was 22,125, against 21 427 in fclie previous year, and of cattle 40,707, ag mist 44,660. Of the human beings de&tioyed, 2(jO(i were killed by wild animals and 19,519 by snakes. Of the deaths occasioned by the attacks of m lid animals, B ( J3 were caused by tigers, 278 by wolves, 207 by leopards, 350 by jackals, and 202 by alligators; 15,591 wild animals and 322,421 snakes were destroyed, for which the Government paid rewards amounting to 141,0.33 rupees.

A Bank Notj: of Sixty Ykars Ago. — The London correspondent of tlic Auckland Herald writes:— A Clnis>toliurcli lesident now on a visit to the Old Country went into the Bank of England and demanded change for a £1 note issued sixty years ago. Probably few in the bank had ever seen such a note, for they evidently questioned its genuineness. Ultimately, however, the bank lecognised their liability, and handed over a sovereign. The New Zealander paid rather deaily for his practical joke, for he could have obtained quite t\\ ice the money had he sold the note as a curiosity. It must be understood that the bank of England do not now issue any notes lower than £5.