BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 30 May 1914, Page 5

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

At a l^i'&eiiiative' convention-oorr r legates from Patea, Egmbrit,- arid" Stratford electorates, presided over' by Archdeacon Ca&sell, on Wednesday afternoon, the following resolution ■• was unanimously adopted: "This conference of workers of the Bible in > State Schools League, representing then South Taranaki: province '(Egmont, Patea, and Stratford, electorates.), ex-' presses surprise that as yet the Government has not acceded to the xeri quest made by the highest courts, of the Church of England, the Presbyterian Church, the Methodist Church, and the Salvation Army, endorsed go* generally by their constituencies and - supported by the individual request1 of 140,000 electors asking for nothing, more than the referendum. The conference draws attention to statements^ made by the League's opponents' claim- - ing the Prime Minister and r his Cabinet as in sympathy with them, and emphasises that the League is not asking the Government to decide upon, the merits of the League's proposal* or to say whether they are rijjht or wrong, but is asking the Government to provide the machinery which, will allow the people to directly decide that' question for themselves at the ballot' box/"

Addresses were delivered by Revs. Stent, Hammond, Butler, > Shore and' Blamires, Mr Lilywall, Mrs Kenrick, and Miss. Harrison on various aspecte of the movement.

During an address on "The Bibl& in Schools in Australia," Rer. T. 6. Hammond related his experiences during a recent stay of seven months in.. New South Wales and Queensland. He confessed to a considerable amount of prejudice against the movement prior to his Australian visit, but the practical working of the scheme had completely disarmed his criticism. What* he had seen in Australia convinced, him that the objections raised against, the Bible in Schools would vanish,, when the system was put into opera^ tion in New Zealand. '