SECTARIANISM IN THE SCHOOLS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2114, 3 April 1914, Page 8

SECTARIANISM IN THE SCHOOLS.

:g.j r _l } w ve bo inclination to follow Mr. \Villiams iu his most recent Mt'ur- : sioit Oil tho above subject, fauftce. it to point oui that, in a letter dated ■ March S j;OUr fiOrrespondeiit wrote: it is stale news ,to hear that the. law is broken wherever iho Nelson system of religious instruction prevails, but, : faced with tlic facts, ho now interprets it thus: "If it is not a breach in the liairtower sense, it is 'certainly an evasion of tho law." I think it was your correspondent himself who referred: ,tO legal pedantry. , . ' On March 13 your correspondent, referring to Switzerland, wrote: Tho 'first issue was raised by tiio- Defenco Leag'U.e who questioned if tho referendum was applied ill t|iat_coiu'itry to re- ■ ligferiis questions. It was to settle tips point tliat 'Canoii Garland set 'forth the state of affairs in Switzerland;" Asked to giro chapter and vferse for his assertion your correspondent dives into a linguistic jungle of his own ■ creation, and emerges to refer to a leaflet, tliat • docs not mention Switzerland and was published before tho Defence League caiiie into existence, It is, however, interesting to li'Oto that Mr; Williams 'is ..in tie inner soufteil.s of Caao.'n' Gar-' iand: ho would bo doing a public service if ho could persuade the latter to come out into tho open on the; Bible-in-Schoola question. 1 Mr. Williams continues to approve the action of the devout men ol Dunedin Who break, tiio tiuv because they do not approve of it and in rushing iu to the rescue of tho Bishop of Obristchurch your correspondent unwittingly attacks him fiercely ill the. rear. Why has tho Anglican Church urged the introduction ol religious teaching that .is riot- Christian into the schools of a _ community that, is supposed to bo Christian? Perhaps tho following extract from the r<h lily by the Bishop of Zanzibar to tho iVrehbishop of Canterbury (I quote from tho '"Standard" of February 16} may throw light oil the point: "Vou speak of the difforent religious bodies, with 'which the Bishop 1 ® desire, to federate as "branches of tho Ghurch of Christ.' Your Grace will. I ain sure, pardon me if I point out that this jihrase implies tho validity of tiio ministries of tho bodies in question, and the Use of it by your Graco in. an olEcial an.nouneeijieni; justifies the Bishop of Mombasa, and Uganda in. nil they proposed artd did at: the Kikuyn coiir ference. If your Graco accurately .in-" te.rpre.ts the minds of tho English bishops and clergy when you grant to iion-confoTming bodies of Christians tho title of 'branches of iho Church of Christ/ I shall at. once admit that'my Whole action in this matter has been, from your Grace's point of vio.w ( contrary to Church order and discipline. But I venture most humbly .to submit to your Graco that tiie exact point, in the cofttrOTersy %otw.ee«.. the Bishops of' ■Mombasa and Uganda and myself is tho! lawfulness of "regarding .such, bodies, however venerable and however spiritually oifecsivo, _a.s 'branches of the Church of Christ.'"—l am, etc., THOS. A. itUNTOR.

■Wellington, April 1, 1914.