The Bible-in-Schools 'Half-loaf'

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 32, 10 August 1905, Page 18

The Bible-in-Schools 'Half-loaf'

An Anglican Bishop in Victoria contended that the chief thing was to secure the entry of the Protestant version of the Bible into the State schools. When that was once effected, he trusted to ' departmental regulations ' for the introduction of the sort of teaching that would suit his particular school of Christianity. The Anglican. Bishop of Wellington did not b^ any means go so far as that in his speech at the Bible-in-schools meeting in the Empire City. He merely stated, in' general t<erms>, that he and his co-reli gtfonists ' believed that their own way was the best for carrying out the revealed will of God.' But one of the speakers, Mr. 'Flux, who described himself as a Bible-in-sphools worker for the past twenty-one years, spoke of ultimate aim* with a candor that deserves a record beside that of the Victorian prelate. Here is how the ' N.Z. Times ' reports his utterance :—: —

1 He could not pretend to say he was satisfied with what he was going to get. But half a loaf was better than none, and he would be satisfied in uhe meantime. He longed, however, for the time when parents would say to t/hem : " You have not abused our trust. Here is the Bible. Take it and teach it to our children," ' And the great meeting marked its high approval of the sentiment by • loud applause.' This proposed ultimate extension of the present scheme of lessons from the Protestant version of the Bible is precisely the method adopted by Whately and Carhle in their historic effort to ' wean ' little Irish children ' from the abuses- of Popery.' The Rev. Mr. Sutherland (as reported in the Dunedin ' Evening Star ') plainly intimated to teachers the sort of mercy they might expect if they declined to fall in with the scheme of the Bible-in-schools party. He and Mt. Flux and the Rev. Mr. Tait and others— iricludrng the b>ig audience that gave the ' loud applause' in Wellington last week— have done the public of New Zealand a siigmal service by the neatness with which they have let sundry Bibfle-in-schools cats out of the bag. These cats will give trouble by-and-by ; for they'll all come back.