LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 14, Issue 1148, 29 April 1870, Page 3

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

Tho Editor does npt hold himself, responsible for opinions expressed by. cosrewppndenta. Sib,— ln order that intelligence on the subject of education may be disseminated, it occurs to 'the that it would be well for you to publish the opinions of men who usually do liofc 3peak on subjects which they know nothing shout. The manufacture of Education Bills, in the various provinces of this colony, has been a good paying speculation to our ! Orpheus C. Eers. Pity 'tis that they we capable of working up nothing but shoddy. , If .you think the enclosed clipping Tcorth insertion, we'll seo whether we hare ■not' got one or two more for you. — I am, &c, .."'"' Little Wabd. (Extract from Mr. Briphfc's snench at Birmingham, '•"■•. January, 1870.) " Whether tbe school shall be free, or whether there shall be any payment; whether there shall be stiy compulsion, and if so, whether it sh&li be of this kind or of that. These are the points which are being sifted throughout the public dis-. cussion which is going on, and of oourso there is nobody learns snore from public discussion thau a member of Her Majesty's Government — (laughter). We have seen them all learn a great many things m ou? time, and I bope that I, who have been so long a teacher, may have still tlie privilege to learn frommy'countrymea — (ißughter). One thing gratifies me exceedingly. I think the religious difficulty is diminishing in magnitude — (bear, hear). Now, nobody proposes that you shall insist upon teaching everybody articles and dogmas and creeds and the peculiarities of any particular sect or Church ; and when I consider with regard to that, the boys I *nd girls of the middle class vho go to day schools, that it is never taken thought of whether they are to be taught religion in their schools, I confess I cannot understand the extraordinary anxiety which is felt that the working people alone shall have their children taught religion in the schools — (cheers) . It; lias always appeared to me that one day in seven is a reasonable time when the family can do it, and that the minister and the religious association of the place of worship — that that organisation is sufficient for teaching religion in the sense which is meant by those who say that education is of no value unless it be taught alongside of and mixed up with distinct religious teaching — (cheers). What I think may be taught of it in every school to erevy child is this— Love of truth, love of virtue, the love of God, and the fear of offending Him — (hear, hear) — and I think that every right-minded and every rightly appointed teacher ia every school in England will undertake, so far as in his power, to teach that to all the children under his care — (cheers). The fact is that the denominational system waa just one of those. arrangements made, because something must necessarily be done, and it was very difficult to do it otherwise. Therefore, if you give one million of money from the State for the purposes of education, tho great bulk of it necessarily must go to that one-half of the population which is a powerful arid united body, and the other half, which, though powerful, is altogether disunited, will find itself in the position of getting almost nothing. But there is another difficulty which those gentlemen who are fond of the denominational system appear to me to overlook, which is this, that one-third of the people do not belong to any denomination whatever — (hear). I am persuaded that as this question is dis- , cussed, and as there comes up from all the people a cry — and there is nobody so much interested in this as the working man, with his wife and his four or live or six children ; for how much of the grief of the later -period of their lives arises from tbe ignorance and misconduct of their children? — I say that as the cry comes up from the great body of the people to the more educated and wealthy classes, and to Parliament, that this religious question .will gradually become smaller and smaller, until at last it shall be able to offer, X believe, to all the children of tbe country, a sound elementary education, which will enable them to have feelings of self-re-spect, and I believe will opesi up to them a much better prospect in life than they can possibly have without that education— (cheers).