Evening Post. FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 1925. A WISE DECISION

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 45, 21 August 1925, Page 6

Evening Post. FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 1925. A WISE DECISION

Without 'in any way associating ourselves with the insinuations made concerning „: , .Mr. Isitt's motives, we fully believe that the House of Representatives haß acted prudently in rejecting his Bill for Eeligious Exercises in Schools. The debate upon the measure was far from edifying, and the bitterness which it revealed was in it- j self a strong argument, for the defeat of the proposals. If discussion upon the subject is so heated in an assembly of men who are ' supposed to be the elect of New Zealand, what is the prospect of the system being accepted and operated without dissension 1 We yield to no advocate of religious instruction in our 'support of moral teaching in the schools, and w,e ; agree that the Bible, as the foundation of the Christian religion, should be studied by children and parents. But we do not agree that there is no system of study and instruction available save one which will lead, as it has led already, to unseemly bickerings and disputes. Much energy has been expended upon an effort to force upon objectors the particular method which the Churches are 'stated to desire. We give these people credit for worthy motives, but we are convinced that they are misapplying their energy. Equal energy directed to the removal of obstacles to the operation of the Nelson system would, we are certain, be attended with better results. It is idle to condemn the Nelson system and proclaim it a failure when in many districts it has been given no trial whatever. It is true that there has been opposition in some places even to this system and some obBtruction; but a little patience and reasonableness would remove this. Opponents of. Mr. Isitt's Bill, in their interview with the Prime Minister, advocated the removal of this obstruction. What, then, is to hinder united effort to secure the general acceptance of the system? A method of instruction which commands wide support would have much better prospects of success than one which can be ushered in only, by wrangling and fighting. In any circumstances Parliament, as at present constituted, has no authority to go further than this. A majority of the present members of the House of Representatives are pledged to maintain the secular system of education. It is their. duV to stand by that pledge, and not to seek a way out ,by pleading that this measure does not offend it. Moral reform which demands pledge-breaking for its initiation is surely a strange anomaly.