The Evening Star. MONDAY, JUNE 8, 1914.

Evening Star, Issue 15513, 8 June 1914, Page 4

The Evening Star. MONDAY, JUNE 8, 1914.

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... », majority <.f thoughtful The Clergy in men and women, who are the Schools, not. necessarily a majority df the. communitv, fee; nothing but pain or annoyance as thev follow the tortuous and devious windings of the; miscalled Bib!e-in-State-Schoo]s contraversy, there i s a t least tho, satisfaction or know-in- tli.it tho general public are. becoming alive to the aeal meaning and object of that, controversy. M, one? tiirw the popular idea. w;is that a fevr atheists and similarly alleged wicked persons had combined together, and with tho help of the recular Pres.y W cre> determined that the boys and girls in the--public schools, of this Dominion should bo kept in ignorance of the word of God. Xw can we- doubt that seme speakers ,vid writers who have put forward this amazing view of tho question honestly believed that they were stating it accurately. There aro possibly man v. e.ven at this Into hour, who continue to regard. themselves as th? polo champions. oMhe right of the Bible to be taught in the .Stateschools, and those who disagree with them and their policy ;•» Later* of tho Bible and its teacliing. Tho simple, truth <jf tho isatter is that 95 per cent, of the men who are opposed to the platform of tho Bible-in-State-Schools League' are. members of Christian churches, whilo numbers of them aro workers in some department, or another iii connection with their owiii church, and on the? teaching side have done at least its much as —wo hardly like, to fay moro than—the league and their supporters to sco that th-a Bible is known in the Stato schools. "What tho Press, the teachers, religious denominations, and thoughtful citizens everywhere oppose are demands which, it granted, would in their judgment do incalculable harm to tho cause of education, and therefore/ to tho rising generation of tho Dominion. The upholders of tho existing system affirm that no caso has been presented that would justify so revolutionary a change as the league demand, and in support of their contention they appeal with the utmost confidence to the most obvious evidence that is furnished of the effects of tho educational systems of New South Wales and New Zealand. We look in vain, as far as this aspect of the league's demand is concerned, for any sound reason that would justify any (.Jovemment or Parliament in conceding it. But the league axe not merely asking for tho introduction of portions of the Bible into State schools as a text book. Were this their only, or even their main, demand, whilo opposition, doubtless, would still ba fortncoming, it would "not, perhaps, be pushed so consistently and generally. The dominant feature "of the league's policy is tho demand for the Right of Entry intc tho public schools qn tho part of* tho priest. Wo cannot but regard this as a demand which, if granted, would result in disaster. What the upholders of the present system of education in New Zealand are called on to do is to concentrate their energies upon making it plain beyond the shadow of doubt that the supreme object of the Bible-in-Sehools League is not to make known to the children the contents of a book from which they are quite wrongly said at present to be barred, but to secure the legal right of the priest or denomina'iional teacher to enter every school, there to. expound the special theological dogmas of his own particular faith. The leaguer's cry for ''the* Bible in State, schools" will have to be met with the counter cry of "iNo> priests .in tho State schools." The {National Schools' Defence. League recognise; and emphasise the real danger in their '"Open Better to Members of Parliament* when they stato: "Under " cover of the plea for ' tho Bible in I "schools,' (the Bible-in-Schools League "are endeavoring to secure tho power of State ond tho jgowers of thai corn-..

*' pulsory attendance regulation to obtain "for clergymen the alleged bioht to go " into any school and collect all the chil- " dren of their denomination for the purpose of giving sectarian oe denomina"tionajc religious instruction." Let this, then, be the rallying cry of all who are sufficiently interested in the welfare of their country to join hands with the earjiest few who are pledged to keep intact the freedom of our schools from clerical interference and from clerical domination.