The Ban on the Bible the Black Spot on our Educational System.

Lake County Press, Issue 2501, 23 October 1913, Page 5

The Ban on the Bible the Black Spot on our Educational System.

„ ♦ By the E«v. E. Wood. The other year Mr Eunciman, President of the Board of Education—a Liberal Statesman —was cabled from London as saying “ Any British Government attempting to exclude the Bible from the public schools deserved to be well threshed at the polls.” This statement implies that the English Bible is in the public schools of the Old Land, and it is so. For forty years the Bible has been almost universally in the public schools of England, which the people have control over, and a cultured statesmen like Mr Eunciman would look upon its exclusion as a literary and moral outrage. The greatest minds of the English speaking world have sung the praises of the educational worth of the English Bible. Dr Newman has pointed out that the reading of the Bible has attuned English “ minds to religious thoughts ” and given them “ a high moral standard.” Father Faber has said that the English Bible “ lives in the ear like a music that can never be forgotten. It is part of the national mind ; it is the anchor of the national seriousness.” John Euskin has said his learning of the Bible by heart was the “ one essential part of my education. Our King only two years ago said to a great deputation of British men of all professions that the English Bible was a “ noble inheritance ” and the greatest of our national treasures.” This book is nigh universally read in the schools of onr Empire. Why should the book be banned in our New Zealand schools ? The book is not banned in all our schools. It is not shut out of our High Schools, for it is read there. It is not shut out of our Maori Schools for the writer lias been present in a Maori school when the teacher most thoroughly taught the Bible. But the Bible is shut out of the schools of the democracy. The exclusion of the Bible gives an anti-national character to our schools. According to the last census there are only eight persons in the whole of New Zealand that describe themselves from the religious standpoint as “ Secularists.” Ths most sectarian thing then is secularism for it stands for the smallest sect in the land. This smallest of the small “ isms ” misrepresents the religious mind of the Dominion. Our schools, to be national, should reflect the feelings and opinions of a people preponderantly Chnstain and therefore the Bible should be in the schools. The exclusion of the Bible gives no satisfaction to our Roman Catholic fellow citizens. Dr Cleary has denounced onr secular system because it makes God and religion as “ contraband as pipe opium”—a statement that needs to bo qualified because the ten commandments are on the walls of the Otago schools and our lesson books are saturated with religion. The Roman Catholic paper, the Tablet, has said “ We object less to the reading of King James’ Bible, even in the schools, than we do to exclusion of all religious instruction. American Protestantism of the orthodox stamp is far less evil than German infidelity.” The exclusion of the Bible gave no satisfaction to our education boards nor to our best statesman. Vigorous

protests wli -i- the Bible was banished from the school without the people ever having been consulted came from the Otago and Southland Education Boards. Mr Macanflrew, one of Otago’s early statesmen, deI scribed the part of our Education Act that I nanished the Bihit- “as (he trreatesfc blot ever placed on our Statute Book ” The restoration of too Bible to our public schools is demanded to-day by an immense multitude of people. At the eud of August it was reported by a deputation that waited on the Premier that close on 112,000 electors had already declared for the restoration of the Bible and for special religious instruction by accredited religious teachers in circumstances which make the charge of proselytism impossible—a charge which would be abundantly possible under the “ Nelson system.” The restoration of the Bible would strengthen our education system and increase its moral worth. The mere imparting of knowledge is not education for as Tennyson sings:— A higher hand must make her mild If all be not in vain ; and guide Her footsteps, moving side by side With wisdom, like a younger child.