ON GUARD!

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 41, 18 February 1911, Page 9

ON GUARD!

RELIGION IN THE SCHOOLS. SECULARISTS URGED TO BE VIGILANT. NATIONAL SYSTEM DEFENDED. Professor Hugh M'Kenzie, a keen, tireless fighter for Now Zealand's free secular and' compulsory system of education, is vigorously continuing the campaign against those who are working hard to alter the present regime, either by the introduction of the Bible into the schools or by persuading the State to recognise and subsidise denominationalism in the education sphere. The professor, in a clear treatise, has examined the whole subject, and the range ot his studies goes far back into the past. THE CHURCH-MASTER OR SERVANT? "All churches or priesthoods were | originally founded to supply a social and spiritual need and demand," says . Professor M'Kenzie. "Slowly but surely, what was meant to bo a servant became a master— and a very exacting master; too. The history of th© Christian i Onurch is no exception to tho rule." Aii institution that began in the service of the State gradually acquired such power and influence that it eventually em- ! ployed tho State in its service. The servant became master and vice versa. ... It was the fact that the churches seemed to have succeeded in reducing 'thrones, dominations, princedoms,' as well as the general body of tho people, to a stale of abject servitude in a virtual theocracy that seems to have roused the modern democracy to a consciousness of tho injustice and irrationality of their, humiliating predicament. The secularisation of education is then but ono phase of the modern revolt against ecclesiastical tyranny and self-aggrandise-ment." BRITAIN'S AWAKENING. ' The reviewer submits that the process of secularisation has been quite phenomenally rapid and drastic in cer- " tain parts of the world. Even in Great Britain a movement which is virtually; secularisation has made enormous progress during tho past few years. aince ISO 3 the voluntary or church! schools in England have decreased in number by nearly 1200, and the aggregate of pupils on their registers has declined by over 500,000. During the same seven years tho number- of Council or State schools has increased by over 1700, and the total number of pupils had' increased by over 750,000. In 1903 tho pupils of the voluntary schools outnumbered those in the council schools by 650,000; in 1910 the positions were' almost exactly reversed. The council schools have now 1.250,000 more pupils than they had seven years ago, and tho voluntary schools have more tsian 500,000 fewer than they had in 1905. There is no Bible reading or religious instruction in tho council schools except a. little of the order known as nonsectarian, an ordei virtually secular, though apparently more objectionable to Catholics and high Church Anglicans than a purely secular system, comments the professor. "In fact," ho adds, "Catholics and the High Churchmen regard the system as the endowment of non-conformity. They sometimes nickname it ' school-board religion.' " EMINENT AUTHORITIES FAVOUR SECULARISM. Professor M'Kenzie refers tc many eminent authorities who have favoured secular education in public schools. For example, Gladstone wrote in 1569 : "Why not adopt frankly the principle* that the State or the local community ' should provide the secular teaching and either leave tho option to the ratepayers to go beyond this sine qua non. if they think fit, within the limits of the conscience clause; or else leave the parties themselves to find Bible and other religious education from voluntary, sources." The late Sir Henry CampbeliBannerman, Lord Morloy, Lord Rosebery, and Mr. Chamberlain are also placed on the list of secular advocates. The professor holds, too, that the present Liberal Cabinet, though constrained to compromise for the present, is convinced that complete secularisation of national education must come within a veiy few, years. THE STATE'S DUTY. After advancing argument that recognition _of denominationalism in publis education would be a mischievous setback to healthy natural progress, the critic remarks: "It is the business of tho State <to .provide a sound, scientific, and civic education. If the churches can supplement that education by specific instruction in morality and religion they can be of very great 'service to the Slate.' If. on the other hand, they fail to do this, they assuredly may be said to fail in justifying their existence. We know that civic, political, social, and educational progress has been the greater and more marked wherever the Stale has recovered its lost rights and superseded the churches in the control and organisation of education. The churches must henceforth bo content, to regard themselves as servants of flic State. It is, and always has been, their duty, no '■ matter how indifferently discharged t to strengthen and support the natural ethic of the State as tried in the crucible of experience and practice, by indicating its divine implication!). By confining .themselves to this .task, they can always be of the very greatest help and servico to the State. Why should they go beyond their own specific promise,' andkeep agitating to be allowed to do for ■the State what the State can do far more effectively for itself?" THE CATHOLICS' POSITION. Regarding the Catholics' claims for special grants, Professor M'Kenzie declares that those who prefer the luxury of exclusivenesß from the national system must be prepared to pay the price. '"The State's national system," he says, "is quite as much in the public in- ' forest as the maintenance of our army an.y navy. Where would we be as a 'nation and Empire if those who are conscientiously opposed to war were to b» allowed a remission of rates or taxation on the ground of conscientious scruples? The very idea of such ' relief ' is absurd." THE BEST MINDS' VERDICT. "The Dest minds in England to-day, M concludes the reviewer, "are, in the interests both of religion and education, aspiring to achieve such freedom as wfc in New Zealand have already achieved under our secular system. We have received from the distinguished statesmen, and educationalists who inaugurated our secular system a priceless heritage, and we would be traitors to the best interests of education and religion if we •failed to come forth as its defenders and champions.