BIBLE IN SCHOOLS BILL

Northern Advocate, 18 August 1931, Page 2

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS BILL

PETITION FOR REJECTION. r ’ (From Our Parliamentary Special.) j WELLINGTON, Monday. ' Over 500 signatures arc appended ' to a petition presented to Parliament [ by the Hon. J. B. Donald, on behalf , of the State Education Defence League, asking that the House reject the , Religious Instruction in Public Schools ’ Enabling Bill. , Petitioners claimed that the Bill J . f aimed at the establishment of a system of compulsory religious instrucr tion of a Protestant type for all such citizens (teachers and scholars) who do not take steps to exempt themselves ■from its operations. Thus it proposed the abolition of the present principles of secularity in national education, by which the responsibility for religious instruction was thrown upon parents and religious institutions outside the school, and to introduce a new principle of denominationalism. This [ principle, the petitioners added, opcn(ed a way to very grave dangers in •the State, tending, -in view of reI ligious differences, to subordinate the j educational interests of the children <to the ecclesiastical interests of the churches, and to subject the teachers to gross inequality of treatment, offering them a systematic inducement to subordinate their inner convictions 1 to the chances of promotion. ' It was further contended that the proposed conscience clause was capable of becoming an instrument of tyranny and injustice, because in practice it would focus the light of public notice upon those who availed themselves of it, and that the instructions and observances carried out by teachers without specific training, tended to become an empty formality, and ineffectual in fostering the spirit of true 1 religion and in raising the standard of citizenship. The Bill further proposed to throw the extra cost entailed upon money voluntarily contributed for the pur*, poSe, but provides no guarantee that at some future time, should voluntary contributions not suffice,'such cost might not be thrown on the public funds. Thus a denominational system would be established at the public expense. J