BIBLE-IN-SCHOOLS. TO THE EDITOR.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 35, 10 August 1905, Page 7

BIBLE-IN-SCHOOLS. TO THE EDITOR.

Siry — His Lordship the Bishop of Wellington, in his address at the recent meeting in the Towu Hall, is reported in the columns of the New Zealand Times as saying:— "ln Victoria two questions had been put— fir6t, whether people were in favour of the present school system. . . •" and he went on to emphasise <tbe fact that in his opinion such at question was unfair, for whilst he supported the present system, he wanted an addition to it, and this form of question gave him no opL sorjj>nii.v of expressing his wish.. Tho

Bible-in-Schools Party generally also declare that such a question can not be permitted, and for the same reasons. I beg to point out that the que&tion actually put in Victoria differed very materially from the summary quoted above. It was as follows (I cite from a leaflet of the Scripture Instruction Election Campaign, Melbourne): — ."1. Are you in favour of tho Education Act remaining secular as at present?" The attention of the voter was directed to the secular character of the Victorian education system, and to the secular character only. It is the secular character of our education system that the Bible-in-Schools Party wish to change. One would think that the natural way 'of ascertaining a voter's wishes on the point would be to ask him whether he desired the teaching to remain (to quote the words of our Education Act, 1877) "entirely of a secular "character," or words to that effect. That such is the natural question is evident from Dr. Gibb's spontaneous summary of what the Bible-in-Schools Party want. Speaking at the same meeting, ' he said : — ."He believed those present were with the League (i.e., the Bible-in-Schools League), and were determined that hard, dry, narrow, and bigoted secularism must cease!"— l am, etc., S. ARNOLD ATKINSON, Hon. Sec. State Schools Defence League. Bth August.