SIR ROBERT STOUT'S BOGY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1240, 23 September 1911, Page 14

SIR ROBERT STOUT'S BOGY.

■, Sir,—l ■ see no need to take up Mr. Gammell's challenge and pursue him through his statistical doublings, mazes, and avenues,.whoro light from the larger outside world never seems to penetrate. If ho could jrsparo 'a. few minutes and devote them to the perusal at the Public Library of a few pages of a recent work on tho "Eelements of statistics," the fascination 'of' his. statistical ' retreats would vanish. ■ But his figures are not in dispute. He is ever vainly digging them out from some corner or other for us -|to fall over. It is Sir Rober.t. Stont's-statistics that a team of a thousand bullocks cannot drag out from their, . darkness. For two long years we htivo'' teen threatened, with them, but so far no one has yet been able to find a trace of the dreadful bogy, and its proprietors are reticient as to ita whereabouts.' Perhaps something,lias happened to it, or is it- merely a case of omne ignotum pro magnifico? _ And this is tho sort of thing that is used and relied upon to induce British politicians to imagine New Zealand to havo becomo, through secularism, a paradise. Like the tale of tho Trojan horse, the thing seems to _bo believed by such writers as Halley Stewart in the "Nineteenth Century." That your readers may judge for themselves, I shall give, without further comment, Halley Stewart's own words:—"Secular education also exists in. ( New Zealand, and what is the result there? Sir Robert Stout, Chief Justice of New Zealand, being in England in 1909, and interviewed by a Daily News' representative on tilio matter of the charges mado against tho morals of tho people because of tho absence of religious instruction in tho schools ■.absolutely declared that such . charges wero "false, absolutely false.' General education of a purely secular character ' lias obtained in New Zealand for thirtythree years. It has worked well, and no serious attempt' has been mado to tindo it. 'Our teachers inculcate order, obedience, respect for others,' Sir Robert Stout 6aid, 'and tho best proof of their success' is seen (1) in the diminisii--sag of serious crime, and (2) in tho fact that those trained free from sectarian ibias produco only half as many criminals •tin l proportion to-' their numbers as those ■trained in tho denominational schools.'" 6—l am, etc., PHYLAX. ! September 0, 1911.