THE ENGLISH EDUCATION ACT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 164, 11 July 1906, Page 8

THE ENGLISH EDUCATION ACT.

(To tue Editor.) Sir, —The contributions of Dr. Bakewell are always interesting aud racy reading, and cannot but be enjoyed even when expressing opinions widely different to one's own. But may I be permitted to show the worthy doctor that the opposition to the Balfour Education Act is not such a fuss about nothing as he would have us believe? I was in London when the-bill relating to that city was made law, and it was well known that both it and its predecessor of 190 C. were engineered in the interests of the High Church and Roman Bishops.. At a vast meeting in the Metropolitan Tabernacle I heard the measure severely condemned by eminent Anglican clergymen as Being retrogressive, oppressive and unjust. Lord Rosebcry declared tUat the object of the bill was "to curtail if not to kill the growth of Nonconformity in the land/ And he was undoubtedly right, for the new laws did away with the splendid Act of 1870, which had worked so well, and gave over the control of the elementary schools to the Bishops of the Churches of England and Rome, while the Nonconformist ratepayer was debaired from participating in their management. In many hundreds of parishes the children of Nonconformists are compelled to attend these Stnte-supported Anglican schools, and in not a few the children'are taught that they are little heathens, that their parents are heretics and schismatics, that their baptism is invalid, and that their names are no better than those given to dumb animals. That this is so may be amply verified by the perusal of the various religious periodicals of the Old Land. The Act of IS7O, which for 30 years wovked so well, provided for Bible-reading in the Board schools, the Lord's Prayer, and one or two parables, but denominationalism was rigidly excluded. This, however, was not "sufficient for the Ritualist, hence the Acts of 1900. and 1902.

Just a word for the "Passive Resister." He is not a person to be hold in "sneaking contempt" nor "sneaking .regard." He is of the stock that has made England what she is, inflexible, determined, choosing rather to suffer persecution, loss, imprisonment, rather than sully his own conscience, or brnig disgrace on the memory of his ancestors by conforming to a retrogressive, tyranni.cal and unjust law. Of such stuff ,were our forefathers, who gained for Old England the: large measure of religious freedom slie enjoys to-day.—l am, etc ifOVUSHOMO. Whangarei, July 5, 1906. • "Constant Reader" sends a letter expressing similar views to those of "Novus Homo."