STATE AID TO SCHOOLS

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27986, 5 June 1956, Page 8

STATE AID TO SCHOOLS

BAPTIST UNION OPPOSES CHANGE (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 4. Confidence in the “uniform and nonsectarian” educational system in New Zealand was expressed in a resolution passed at the sixtieth annua) meeting of the Central Auxiliary of the Baptist Union of New Zealand at Wellington. The resolution was passed “in view of the new appeal for State aid to schools by the Roman Catholic Church.” The resolution said: “That this sixtieth annual meeting of the Central Auxiliary of the Baptist Union of New Zealand expresses its confidence in the uniform and nonsectarian educational system of this country; while believing that the community welfare is best served by church and home teaching of religion, records its appreciation of the cooperation extended by parents through their schools committees, in permitting non-sectarian religious instruction to be given; supports the liberty of any religious group, within our democatic system, to teach and generally propagate its views; holds strongly the view that such propagation of religious, social, or political views at the taxpayers’ cost would constitute improper use of the public revenue, for whereas on the one hand freedom to express and teach its views is invariably regarded as an undeniable right within Protestant democracies, on the other hand the taxpayer has an equally undeniable right that tax moneys should not be used for the purposes of sectarian propagation of views; while it believes in the value of religion in the upbringing of our children, calls upon all to support a unified system of education which is free to all. We deplore the fragmentation arising frojn any inroads on this system.”