LECTURE BY BISHOP CLEARY IN WANGANUI

New Zealand Tablet, 5 June 1913, Page 26

LECTURE BY BISHOP CLEARY IN WANGANUI

- __ • (From our own correspondent.) His Lordship Bishop Cleary lectured here on the Bible-in-Schools question on Thursday night. The Opera House was altogether inadequate to accommodate the big crowd that turned up to hear his Lordship. What he did say (remarks the local Herald) was evidently approved of by the big audience judging by the numerous rounds of applause. The chair was taken by the* Mayor (Mr. T. B. Williams), and his Grace Archbishop Redwood, Dean Holley, and a number of citizens were also on the platform. The Mayor, in introducing his Lordship, stated that there probably would be a plebiscite taken on this question. He read a number of apologies from prominent people, including several from ministers of religion. At the conclusion of the lecture a number of questions were asked, and answered to the satisfaction of the audience. Mr. Jas. headmaster of the Victoria Avenue State School, in moving a resolution, said that he was a Presbyterian, and had been a Sunday school teacher for forty years. He commented on the ignorance of the growing generation in Biblical matters. Speaking as a State school teacher, he thought that the Bible should be taught in schools, but objected to the teachers imparting that instruction. He commented strongly and adversely on the attitude taken up by Rev. J. Kennedy Elliott, of Wellington, who had been reported as having said that he thought the State school teachers were taking too prominent a part in the agitation against the Bible-in-Schools movement, and that they should be reminded that the schools existed for the children and not for the teachers. He moved—- ‘ That as citizens and taxpayers of this Dominion we pledge ourselves to oppose the scheme of the Bible-in-Schools League as conflicting with the rights of conscience and inimical to the real interests of religion and. religious peace.’ This motion was seconded by .Mr. W. M. Luxford, who was in agreement with the sentiments expressed by Mr. Aitken. _ The motion on being put was carried by a large majority, although there were about half-a-dozen dissentient voices heard, among them being the voices of two or three ladies. A vote of thanks to his Lordship Bishop Cleary was moved by Mr. J. K. Law, headmaster of the Aramoho State School, who stated that he was voicing the convictions of eighty per cent, of the teachers when he said that he conscientiously objected to the obligation of imparting the League’s lessons being placed upon his shoulders.

, As the 9.25 train from Wanganui was approaching the Aramoho Station, and when between the Kaikokopu crossing and the signal station, a pea-rifle bullet or stone crashed through the window of a carriage in which Bishop Cleary was travelling (says the Wanganui Herald of May 30). The Bishop was struck on the forehead with the broken glass, causing a little blood to flow, but was not otherwise injured. Workmen were engaged on the line near by, and the signalman was watching the approaching train, but saw no one near the train. It is thought by some that the window was broken by a stone from a shanghai or catapult, while others suggest that the glass was pierced by a pea-rifle bullet.