BIBLE IN STATE SCHOOLS

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 32, 1 November 1929, Page 13

BIBLE IN STATE SCHOOLS

As a teacher of a country school in which Bible lessons have been given for over twenty years, I beg to differ from the remarks made by the Hon. W. Earnshaw and the Hon. C. J. Carrington (writes "Country Teacher.”) There is “cohesion among all sects” excepting one, the children of which work under a teacher in another room. There is no “resistance” whatever from the latter people, and. excepting for this weekly lesson, the teachers of religion have no opportunity of reaching a great number of country children, many of whom walk ling distances to school. It has not been proved that New Zealand is in the “forefront of the nationsof the world” in education, but it certainly has been proved that the exclusion of the Bible from the schools has been the greatest calamity that ever happened to the people. Imagine any member of Parliament insinuating that “further advancement in religious education would be a calamity,” und that State school children would be injured by reading the greatest book in the world. Evidently Mr. Earnshaw has not read anything about recent discoveries which have proved the truth of “old world views.” or the credibility of “old world stories.” Let me recommend him to read recent literature on the subject. At present the question of Bible reading is left to the committees, and there are no “factional fights.” Even the short Bible lessons at present given do a wonderful amount of good, and are attended by practically all Protestant children. After commenting on Mr. Carrington’s remarks as to the Roman Catholic Church being excluded from the conferences of Christian churches, and on other references by Mr. Cariihgton, the correspondent concludes >—“A referendum on the Bible-in-schools question is long overdue, for it is quite time that the children in our schools should no longer be denied the right of instruction in God’s word to please a narrow minority. We ask for freedom to place religious instruction first in our schools, a freedom that ho Parliament has the right to deny to Protestant people living in a British country.”