THE BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 258, 29 October 1907, Page 4

THE BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

The Premier was on safe ground when he met the Bible in schools deputation at Wellington yesterday. For it was not in any way necessary for him to express a personal opinion upon the proposal laid before him. In reply to the suggestion that Bible lessons should be provided in our State schools Sir Joseph Ward could only say that this Government has been authorised by the people to administer "a free, secular and compulsory system of education," and no Government could venture to alter this system unless it had received a mandate to that effect. The results of the last election show that the majority of the voters are in favour of maintaining the system as it now stands; and, under the circumstances, from the Government standpoint, there is nothing more to be said or done. At the same time th 3 Premier indicated clearly enough that he was prepared, if necessary, to argue the case on its merits. Personally, he is in favour of religious instruction for children; but he feels strongly the difficulties contin-

gent on the introduction of religious teaching of any sort into our schools; and the Minister for Education, who will certainly not be' accused of holding a brief for the agnostics or the heterodox, is in this matter entirely at one with tho Premier. Mr Fowlds has recently had an opportunity of observing the effects of religious teaching in schools at Home; and in his opinion the only way out of the difficulty is for the State to undertake the purely secular training of the children and leave religious instruction to the denominations concerned. We would add that, while we entirely agree with Mr Fowlds as to the necessity for reserving our schools for secular work, we think that the moral and religious training of children is chiefly the duty of their parents, and that if parents had a keener sense of their responsibilities in these matters they would be 10-;s anxious to shoulder their privileges on to our already overworked teachers. As to the general merits of the question, we hold that Bible teaching in our schools would mean the immediate revival of those bitter sectarian controversies that led to the secularisation of our educational system, not to mention the imposition of religious tests which would infringe the just liberties of the teachers; and we see no ground for believing that the deliberate and wellmatured opinion of tho country on this subject has altered or 13 likely to alter within any measurable limit of time.