BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 8250, 22 September 1915, Page 4

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

We have received several protests against the action of the Ministers' Association in inaugurating a system of giving simple Bible lessons in the Borough School. The association has issued a circular to parents, pointing out that " tho instruction . given will be .entirely unsectarian in character," and a list of 16 subjects, from tho Gospel of St. Mark, is attached. With tho exception of several of these which deal with, parables, the most bigoted opponent of tho Bible- in schools cannot object to the matter of the lessons. The test will be the interpretation placed upon them. But there, is room for objection in the hour at which the lessons va re to bo given. The circular states that "the Ministers' Association has received permission from the Borough Committee to give Scripture lessons on Wednesday morning of each week," and the first lesson was given this morning, commencing at 9 o'clock and ending at 9.30. This is scarcely in accordance with the expressed intention of tho School Committee, which insisted that the lessons must be given outbade school hours; but the difficulty is considered to have been surmounted by the children having been notified that on Wednesday mornings school work Mill not commence before 9.30, and that attendance at the Biblo lessons was. entirely optional. The full five hours' schooling is obtained by keeping the children in till 3.30. In view of the fact that the Education Board may be asked to decide the point, we will not make any comment upon the matter further than to suggost that the Ministers' Association would have avoided any possibility of controversy or opposition if it had arranged to commence the lessons at 8.30. Under tho prosent arrangements, the. ordinary school day is being broken into, and that is not in keeping with the regulations.