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Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXXI, Issue 10275, 17 February 1894, Page 4

A communication from the honorary secretary of the Scripture Text-book Association, published in another part of this issue, shows how deplorably ignorant some clergymen may remain of the every-day life of the members of their flocks. The Rev Henry Williams, whose zeal in good works is widely known, actually asks us to believe that the somewhat mysterious report he has received from Sydney, “type written, and officially signed ‘J, Gibson/ ” proves beyond argument that the introduction of a Scripture textbook into our public schools would in no way interfere with our national system of education. * He admits that it would not be agreeable to the Roman Catholics, and there is a hint in one part of his communication that it would be absolutely offensive to the Jews; yet he writes of this “simple concession” settling the “religious difficulty.” Could anything be more absurd ? Why, if there is one thing better calculated than another to aggravate the “ religious -difficulty ” it is the scheme sketched out iu Mr Williams’s report. Fancy a school of . colonial children being deliberately trained by the State in “ sects ” and “ persuasions ” and “ denominations ; ” the books of onedivisionbeiug carefully guarded from the inspection of the other divisions, and every teacher being required to dwell “with judicious force and impressiveness ” upon “ points of religion ” with which he might have no sort of sympathy! The first effect, on Mr Williams’s own showing, would he to exclude every Roman Catholic from the teaching profession. This, while a monstrous injustice, would be but the beginning of dissension. Children, in their blissful ignorance of creeds and doctrines, are apt to magnify differences of religious opinion. The boy born of Baptist parents knows at present nothing of the “ errors ” of hia. Congregational playmate ; but if the two lads were separated in the State school for religious teaching the one would begin to suspect that the other was in some way inferior to himself. From suspicion to contempt and bitterness is the easy transition we see every day. Let us at least avoid it in our schools. The illustration Mr Williams has drawn from New South Wales should settle this question once and for all. The Scripture text-book is confessedly only the stepping - stone to denominational education.