THE ANGLICAN SYNOD AND RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.

Evening Star, Issue 7356, 31 October 1887, Page 1

THE ANGLICAN SYNOD AND RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.

The Rev. J. Hobbs,' at Friday night's sitting of the Synod, moved—" That the Standing Committee be requested to take measures for obtaining signatures to a petition to the House of Bepreseutatives on tho subject of religious instiuction, similar to that passed by the Synod .of Wellington." He felt that the Synod had been taking up a somewhat anomalous position of late years. They had been asking for one thing and wanting something else, and should now make plain what they did want. There were two distinct wants put for ward—the first represented by the Presbyterian element, who desired Bible-reading in schools without note or comment and with a conscience clause, and who would be content with that; and on the other band there, were the Roman Catholics, who desired schools under' their own supervision, supported, if possible, by grants.,: , Piey*(the Anglicans) began by fctatmg, that they .wanted the same as the Catholics, but they differed ju ijbia: that while the Catholics had beenjaWe in the past to keep their schools open, and-thereby to have cause for continual irritating apnea! Jo the Government for justice, the Anglicans Kttd not any such living argument. The Catholics also had held aloof from the Protestant petition. He thought there was now no doubt that some steps would be taken by the Government to meet the wishes of the peple, which had just been so loudly expressed. There was every probability that the Presbyterians would get whajt they wanted—viz., Bible-reading without note or comment; and the fact of the Protestants getting what they wanted would, make the Romanists more persistent, and they would very likely get their demand too. But the Anglicans would really fall between two stools., Hedjd hot.' think they would be considered to have expressed any wish'similar to the Catholics. Tho Government would - say that, they had asked for Bible-reading and had got whereas it was in reality only part of what they desired. Petitions were now being asking not for Bible-reading but for denomisational schools; and if they had united with the Protestants in asking for the Bible in schools, they should now unite themselves wife others, who were asking for what .they wanted. He fancied the Government would be rather glad of these petitions at the present there was no, more expensive item tbto. education, and' so far as. it would assist economise they .would be ready to grant, what was asked. Schools not supported but assisted by the Government would he in accordance with the wishes both of the GovernmSnt- and the country, ■ ,j ; ;-v ? Archdeacon Edwabds could not help feeling that the motion, if carried, would place the Synod in an awkward position. The difficulty to him was how those* of them who had sent up a petition in favor of Bible-reading in schools could now sign the petition proposed-by f ltit. Hobb.'. They haddone this act deliberately it a meeting at which the Bishop wag present and, spoke. AU, or nearly all, had tion for 'the Bible in schools, and fiefor one' could not now petition saying they wanted dehoounathAtf education. He would therefore morefas jui amefidmeat--" Th<t it 'fy %ijffisffld£^:

Dreaent time to petition the House of Representatives on the subject of religious education, seeing that a petition has already been signed by a large number of our Church in favor of Bible-reading in schools." Rev. Mr Hampden thought because some had signed the first petition that was no reason why they should nsisign another petition for something more. They would not contradict themselves by joining with their brethren elsewhere in asking plainly for what they really wanted. Rev. A. R. FrroHHTT said it was important that they should express continually in some way or other their discontent with the national system. He did not believe that theStite could possibly provide any sort of religious instruction, and therefore he had never been able to go heartily with the Bible-in-schools movement. Perhapß there were a few who oould be content with that mere simulacrum of religious instruction, but he was not one of them. At the same time, although the sentiment might sound Machiavellian, it might be a good thing to get the Bible in schools, because it would assuredly break down the present system. The Catholic claims must in that case be considered, and they could not then refuse other claims, and the result would be that the national system must disappear. This, he thought, waß nevertheless the goal towards which we must be travelling. Ten, fifteen, or thirty years ago it was right for the Government to supplement any instruction that was obtainable in the earlier times; but as that generation grew up and acquired the power and the wish to preserve their own educational advantages for their children, the Government should retire. As the State could not teach religion, the secular system was the only rational one for a national system; but under it the conscience of the country was wounded. By whatever means they succeeded in breaking down the present system, they should be willing to revert to the old relation of the Church to education. The Church had the charge of education in former times, and should not be afraid to go back to those times. He went on to argue that before the Reformation the Church, which then had charge of education, did the work well, and that after the Reformation there was a great falling off in the education of the people, especially the lower orders. The Church lost her revenues then, and it was only comparatively lately that she had been able to do anything towards education. But she had since established the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, and it might not be generally known that during the first fifty years of its existence this Society had planted 1,600 free schools. The Church would indeed have again gradually overtaken the duty of educating the people had it not been for the sudden industrial development of this century, and the consequent increased demand for elementary education. Therefore the Government stepped in ;• but that intervention should be only temporary. It would be a grievous thing, he thought, if the Church was to be permanently shut out of the task of educating the people, because it was a duty that should not be done in a regimental manner. The Church at present was deprived of an essential part of her work, and the community suffered in consequence. The cure for all this was the retirement of the Government from the field; and he believed this was well understood, and that they would retire. There need be no fear when that time arrived that the instruction would be of tho kind generally dreaded when denominational education was spoken of. ~,,,, Archdeacon Beaumont agreed with what had been said by the last speaker, and drew attention to what the Church was doing in England under a denominational system. The returns brought down to 1886 showed that the average attendance in the voluntary church schools was 1,600,000, and in the State schools 1,200,000. The average attendance at voluntary schools of aH denominations was 2,1%,000, bo that in other words the voluntary system at present was doing double the work of the Government. The Government in England was—as he had always maintained shou'd be the case in New Zealand—only a supplementary aid to education. Our present system, he thought, was the most cruel, exacting, and grinding ever invented, and the men who were placed in authority and spoke about the importance of not impairing its efficiency certainly knew nothing about it. He (the speaker) did not want the State to teach religion, but he wanted common fairness and honesty to the people of the country. He desired that if a denomination was able to establish a school and satisfy the Government inspector, it bhould be helped as the State in England helped voluntary schools. The argument that such an arrangement wou'd raise a multitude of schools was the greatest mistake. If they did they would not he a success, and it would become a law of the survival of the fittest. As he moved about the country he could not but be struck by thefact that young people were growing up entirely without reverence. Outsile the Catholic denomination we found no reverence at all in the young. He referred to the Bishop's able address at old Knox Church, but regretted that it should have been delivered in the ciuse of Bible-readitg merely in schools. Tho PfKSiDESTsaid he trusted there would be a u ;at!imous vote. As regarded his own address, he could only say that he was not in the least ashamed of or sorry for the action he took in to some extent supporting the Bible in schools. He made it abundantly clear to all who spoke to him on the tubject that he had not altered his platform in the least. He should never be satisfied until the teachers were able to teach 1 el'gion in schools of their own ; but the reason lie ceased to hesitate as to speaking on the subject was that he came to perceive, not only the tendencies of the present system, but its actual results. This made him ask whether it was right of him to refine to throw liU influence in the direction of some religious concession; but he had lft everyone who came to him know that it was his intention to support such action as that contemplated by the present motion.

The motion was pnt, and carried unani mously. ___________