SCHOOL COMMITTEES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1109, 24 April 1911, Page 6

SCHOOL COMMITTEES.

ELECTIONS TO-NIGHT. BIBLE-IN-SCIIOOLS QUESTION* To-night, at the schools throughout the Dominion, the householders will meet to receive the annual reports and balancesheets of the out-going committees, and elect new committees for the- ensuing your. Generally .speaking, the elections arc expected to pass oil' very quietly, there being, so far as can be gathered, no contentious questions at. present pending. Secretaries of committees in the suburban districts are asked to kindly arrange for precis reports and election results to bo sent on to 'J'hk Dominion office this evening. If copies of the annual reports could be sent in during the day, suck an arrangement would greatly facilitate their publication.

RELIGIOUS TEACHING. LEAGUE ISSUES A' CIRCULAR.. The Wellington Biblc-in-Schools League has seized this annual opportunity of expressing its views oii Hie question of religious instruction in schools, and this year has issued the following circnlar: — "The question of some form of Bible teaching in the public schools of the Dominion is at. present being widely discussed by the people, and the churches almost without exception are diligently preparing for a new campaign. Some of them, notably the Anglican, have definitely pronounced in favour of the scheme known as tiro New South Wales system. The Presbyterians and .Methodist Churches have set up a strong committee to consider this system, and report to the next meeting of their supreme governing bodies. The following brief account of the NewSouth Wales method, from the pen of the Pev. D. J. Garland, organising secretary of the Queensland League, ths greatest authority on the question in Australia, will therefore be of general interest. Mr. Garland suggests that the system should be henceforth spoken of as the 'Australasian system,' inasmuch as it now exis's in four'out of the six States. Ho writes:— '"The system by which tho problem of religious instruction has been solved in four of the six States of Australia provides for simple selected Bible lessons being given by the State school teachers without sectarian teaching, and for ministers of religion or their accredited substitutes visiting the schools during school hours and teaching the children of their respective denominations. A conscience clause provides that no child shall receive either the Bible lessons from the State school teacher or Tcligious instruction from iho minister of religion, contrary to the parent's wish. This conscience clause is t:ho. key to the whole problem,, because it gives perfect liberty to the parent, placing the full control in their hands. Neither the State nor the minister of religion can compel the child to receive the religious lessons. This system has existed in New South AVales since 186G, in Tasmania since 18GS. Western Australia since 1897, and Norfolk Island since 190G, and it was introduced last year into Queensland by the decision of tho people ascertained through a referendum.

"No Sectarian Difficulties." "'The official opinions of the heads-ol tho department where this system exists are emphatic that no sectarian difficulties arise in connection with the working of the religious instruction classes, and these official opinions arc endorsed by tho State school teachers who have in great numbers testified in writing their high appreciation of the value of tlie religious instruction given in tho State schools. The system is further endorsed by the action of those churches—Anglican, Presbyterian, and Methodist, : and of the Salvation Arm}-—all of which have unanimously, through their highest governing bodies, given -their adherence to the system, and commend its introduction where it does not exist. '"The fact that the system has existed for nearly half a century in two of the States is the plainest of proof that no difficulties are created by its existence, and that it gives satisfaction to a majority of those States, otherwise it would not have been continued for such a lons period upon the Statute Book. '"The fact that it was introduced into Western Australia in 1593, in Norfolk, Island in 190G, and Queensland in 1910. shows that it is capable of being grafted into an existing system without in an.y. way disturbing it; and the fact stands out that once this system is introduced it is never disturbed, thereby proving a permanent solution of the religious instruction problem. It would be idle to deny tho fact that one section of the Christian Church—the Roman Catholic—is opposed to the system, but notwithstanding that opposition, in New South Wales alone the number of Roman Catholic children attending the State schools is over 30,000. practically all of whom accept the selected Bible le=sons from their State school teachers, and this notwithstanding tho opposition of their Church to the national system of education. Once the system is introduced, it proves the strongest bulwark for the maintenance of a national system of education as opposed to denominational education under ecclesiastical control. There may be some, better system for giving religious instruction in a national system of education, but this is the only system which has proved acceptable and provided a permanent solution of the problem.'" A CURIOUS POINT. CLAIM FOR ,B.ACK CAPITATION. An unusual point in connection with the payment of capitation to school committees will be raised at tho meeting of the householders o£ tho South Wellington School district to-night. It appears that if tho infant department of a school is in a separate building, it may be regarded as a separate school for tho purposes of. capitation, tho amount of which is assessed upon the basis of so much per head of the'average attendance. At first sight it would appear that there would be no difference between paying capitation'on tho average attendance of the main school and the infant department combined, and paying on separalo returns, for tho statistical result is exactly the .=ame. If, say, tho average attendance of the main school is 500, aad that oli the infant department is 150, then the whole average is 650. But tho point is this: the rate of capitation varies according to tho grade of tho school, being at tho highest for tho school of tho lowest grade, and at tho smallest for the school of the largest grade. A school of 150, therefore, would receive a higher rate of capitation .than a school of 500; in the case of the South Wellington School, tho difference in pounds, shillings, and pence between reckoning the main school and the infant department as one, and returning them as separate institutions is something like .C'3o. The grievance of the South Wellington Committee is that the infant department was built soino years after tho main school— threo years ago, in fact—but the committee only became aware of the above point la.-t year, when the capitation claim was made in respect of two schools instead of ono, as in the two previous years. Thn Education Board passed thn claim, and the committee was .CIO richer in pocket than they were tho two previous years. Tho committee is now agitating for tho payment of back capitation—.EGO odd. The result of their efforts should bo interesting, for c£CO odd is a nice little windfall for a school committee.