BIBLE LESSONS IN STATE SCHOOLS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXII, Issue 13574, 21 October 1904, Page 4

BIBLE LESSONS IN STATE SCHOOLS.

We do nob think that the Rev James Gibb will help the cass for Bible teaching in Still© schools to any marked extent by the letter we publish this morning. He calls Tasmania to his aidi as a country that provides " instruction, in sacred history " in its public schools without producing the "sectarian rivalry and strife" which some of the opponents of his views have predicted. But instruction in sacred history, which Sir Gibbs's friend has watched with 30 much satisfaction, is a rather different thing from Bible teaching. We do not profess to write with absolute authority on the Tnsmanian. educational system, bub the "Australian Handbook" tells us that it is strictly non-sectarian, with the provision that " religious) instruction may be given at cei-tain hours by clergymen or other authorised religious teachers." The position may be as it has been represented to Mr Gibb, but our own impression has been that the Tasmanian system was in this respect practically the same as the New Zealand] system. There is, however, one curious feature about the statistics of the subject which suggests that we may have been mistaken. The average daily attendance at the Stat* schools in Tasmania is 14,259, while the attendance at the registered private schools is 10,373. These figures do not deal with the denominational schools at all, and we are, therefore, justified in assuming that more than half the children of the State receive their education outside l the public institutions. In New Zealand there were in 1901 132,911 children attending tbo State primary schools, and only 19,857 attending the secondary and private schools. It 'is obvious that there is some influence at work in Tasmania, keeping children. away from the public schools, and it may be the system of religious instruction which Mr Gibb is anxious to introduce here. If this gentleman and his friends will persist in setting up New South Wales and Tasmania as examples for our imitation they cannot complain if their opponents sometimes draw comparisons between the fin-

ishedi products -of sectarian and secular education. Crime and immorality aae distinctly more prevalent, in the two Australian States than they are in New Zealand. Wo do not wish to imply that this is duo to religious instruction. On the contrary, we believe that religions instruction at the right time and in the right place will do more than anything else to raise, the moral standard of a nation. But State religions instruction in New South Wales has certainly not produced very happy results. The convictions for drunkenness in New South Wales are 14.57 per thousand of population, in New Zealand 7.41 per .thousand; the convictions for serious offences 7.83 per thousand in New South Wales, 5.69 per thousand in New Zealand; for minor offences 34.09 per thousand in New South Wales, 24.51 per thousand in New Zealand ; tho proportion of illegitimate births is 6.84 per hundred in New South Wales, 4.38 per hundred in New Zealand; the expenditure upon police is 5s per head in New South Wales, and 2s lid per head in New Zealand. In the faco of these figurcsi it seems incumbent upon the president of the Bible-in-Sobools Conference to show that there is something to be gained by adopting the New South Wales system before agitating for the abolition of our own.