BIBLE-IN-SCHOOLS 'STATISTICS'

New Zealand Tablet, 1 May 1913, Page 22

BIBLE-IN-SCHOOLS 'STATISTICS'

To the Editor. Gravely erroneous statistical matter suppod, condensed," to a section of the Dominion ~ press, as been enlarged in a widely circulated League leaflet, Methods '■■Opposition." The ' statistics' are advanced to • ' prove' Bishop Cleary a prevaricator in accusing the League of aiming at ' prohibiting the Roman Catholic religion' by reviving ' the penal code of Ireland.' (1) The penal code of Ireland was not mentioned by me. (2) I neither said nor suggested that the League is intent on 'prohibiting the Roman Catholic religion.' (3) I did not (as also alleged) treat ' as a revival of the penal code the Catholic clergy's right of ' visiting and instructing' Catholic children in the public schools of New South Wales. In my two utterances touching the ' penal code ' I specified the penal principles advocated by the Leaguemajority rule of consciences, enforced contributions from conscientious objectors for State ' religious teaching,' compulsion of teachers' consciences, and the Irish proselytising conscience clause (Auckland Star, October 2, November 7, 1912; N.Z. Herald, October 28, 1912). There was no accusation of 'prohibiting the Roman Catholic religion.' (4) The League writer proceeds to 'prove Bishop Cleary a prevaricator by proving' that ' the , Roman Catholic religion' is not .' prohibited in New South Wales!

For this purpose he professes to quote 'official statistics of New South Wales' to show that Roman Catholic "priests *>; there ':- have been : - visiting ~ and instructing in' seven years an annual; average of 31,423 Roman Catholic children 7 ; in '?■ the public schools! > The seven genuine sets of 'official 1 ' statistics'; have each a column headed Number of : children [ enrolled 'i (in -the public schools). Over 31,000. Roman Catholics are set down among the number of children enrolled.' In each of these seven" separate ; : statistical r returns the ; League writer strikes ; out the words * ' Number of ? children:; enrolled'; he inserts in their place 'children instructed' ('by Roman ; Catholic priests he follows this :up with an even more amazing statistical paragraph flatly contradicting -' the ' official statistics.' I have, • open to inspection, the ' official statistics' from 1903 onwards. In the Presbyterian ? Outlook of March 4 these statistics were denounced by me as false also by Mr. John Caughley, M.A;, 'with deadly detail, in the Lytteltoh Times of March 17,' and in various papers about a fortnight later. According to a League writer in the Lyttelton Times of April 2, the falsity of these statistics was then well known to the League's organising department. Driven at last by direct- letterinquiry, the League organiser privately replied that the false ' statistics not the falsely alleged ' accusations ' by Bishop —were corrected. . This statement is untrue. It is true that (over the figure column) the falsified words children instructed' have been replaced, in small, thin type, by the words 'children enrolled,' and no attention is called to the alteration. But the text following expressly states, in heavy, black type, the same old falsehood that all these thirty-one thousand odd children are being 'visited.' and 'instructed' by ' the Roman Catholic' Church. Another previous statistical falsification; is plainly suggested again in the ' corrected ' statement that all the schools cannot be visited by the priests.' The League's officially ' cooked ' statistics are thus cunningly repeated in a manner which precluded "all possible doubt as to the perfect deliberateness of the falsification. These are, unfortunately, only one small group of hundreds of misrepresentations about which I have opened communications with the League Executive. In the same official leaflet the League organiser makes it an unpardonable sin to delay wilfully for one single minute' open confession of even unwitting misrepresentations. So far as I am concerned, the incident of this unworthy attack on me will close with the fair and honorable amende which the occasion demands not before.l am, etc.,

* Henry W. Cleary, D.D., Bishop of Auckland.

In connection with the above, copies of the following letter have been forwarded to the Executive of the Bible-in- League and its organising secretary by his Lordship Bishop Cleary:

'I greatly regret that in necessary self-defence I must bring before your Executive another series of grave misrepresentations that appear in the League leaflet, Methods of Opposition. Here are clear and undeniable instances of falsification of seven separate official returns, perpetrated with seemingly full deliberation for controversial purposes, ostensibly published with the League's official sanction, and actively circulated long after its public exposure. lam strongly convinced that the members of the League Executive can have no conscious sympathy with such methods; but their own undoubted sense of personal honor does not absolve them from a grave measure of responsibility for permitting their movement to associate itself, without proper investigation or restraint, with such truly deplorable misrepresentations. ' The same leaflet makes it an unpardonable offence to delay for one single minute' the retraction of even an unwitting error reflecting unfavorably on others. I trust to the honor of your Executive for the full and frank amende which the occasion demands.'

' I remain,

' Faithfully Yours,

' * Henry W. Cleary,

'Bishop of Auckland.'