RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN STATE SCHOOLS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 237, 6 October 1891, Page 4

RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN STATE SCHOOLS.

The wise man said "There is nothing new under the sun," and he might have repeated io with emphasis if he had been in the Anglican Synod ab Wellington last Thursday evening. That august body was engaged with its annual discussion of a motion on introducing religious instruction info State schools. Captain ITewetfc, wh° led off, and whose motion wag eventually lost on the voices, admitted that Synodical protests have f=o far failed to touch the feelings of the people of the co'onj , . He is therefore of opinion that it is desirable to descend to "lower arguments." His object in thi3 descent, he informs U3, is so to stir up the people that they will make a belief in religious education in our national echool system a sine qua mojjforovery candidate foraseatin the House. Captain Hewetfc leaves us in doubt as to whether these "lower arguments" are to be based on moral suasion, or whether the desired state of intellectual conviction i 3 to be produced in the minds of budding legislators by rougher and readier measures. Wo are accustomed to associate "lower arguments " with boohooing, denial of free- ; dom of speech, and other boisterous tactics ' which have disgraced recent election meeti in £3 in a neighbouring colony. Leaving; I this point in uncertainty, the speaker proceeded to suggest that the Synod should get the Christians of the country to say what religion should bo taught in the schools. Captain Hewett is evidently not tied down to any particular form of belief, but, like the governess who said she was Catholic, or Protestant to suit her patrons, holds free-and-easy views on dogmatic theology. As the discussion proceeded it was evident the speakers were not clear either as to what they really wanted or as to the cause of past failures to influence fchs Legislature. The Rev. A. S. Jones apassume that the defenders of the secular system must necessarily be atheists, and as an antidote he suggested that a " brief prayer acknowledging God Almighty " might be drawn up to be used at the opening of schools. This mode of defeating secularism the reverend gentleman modestly stated to be only "a beginning." Ifc would, at any rate, carry the war into the enemy's camp, and prepare the ground for a general ecclesiastical cannonading. The Rev. A. Towgood was rather at a loss where to fix the blame of non-succesa. First, ho laid it upon the shoulders of the secularists. If by " secularists :, Mr Towgcod means the great mass of electors in the colony who aro opposed to introducing the thin end of the wedge of denominationalism in any shape or form, we agree with him; but if he applies the term to tho section popularly _ called "freethinkers," his contention is absurd. That a small body hardly strong enough to support regular services or maintain an organ for the dissemination of its peculiar views is more potent in the halls of Legislature than the numerous Christian bodies with their variousorganisationsandextensive ecclesiastical machinery, is as fanciful as it is false. The Koman Catholics next came lin for scapegoat exigencies. It is true the Catholics aro persistent for pro rata assistance to their own schools, but if they gained that they would make no objection to any foxm of religion taught in the State schools. Mr Towgood then turned the engines of his wrath against the Presbyterians. Here we think his strictures are decidedly unjust. The Presbyterians are as anxious as other bodies that religion should form a part of educational training. Bub Mr Towgood affirms his Scotch friends " wish the present system to be continued at all hazards, except they could get some system especially to suit themselves." Exactly ; and "this is precisely what the Anglicans are seeking, and just what makes the difnculty of getting anything definite at all. Each religious body is pulling in a different direction. Mr Field put the whole thing in a nutshell when he said " the chief difficulty was the difference of opinion among the various denominations." Sir Quick clenched thi3 remark by enlarging: upon the impossibility of grafting denominational religious education on a national system. This has been pointed out time after time by the press, but this simple truth rolls off the ecclesiastical mind like water off a duck's back. Synods and Conference blame secularists, Catholics, their religious neighbours, anything or anyone rather than themselves. Everyone outside clerical assemblies has iong accepted the fact that our system of education , must be maintained intact. On the Wellington Diocesan Synod ife will probably dawn about the time of the Greek kalendg.