REV. MR. TEBBS AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 5997, 5 February 1881, Page 5

REV. MR. TEBBS AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.

TO Tire EDITOR. Sir, —"Will yon kindly allow me to reply, through your columns, to "H.Y.'s" charge of disingenuonsness, that I cannot perceive it. I speak of the advocates of a godless education for the youth of this colony as a small minority—albeit, a clamorous one—and I am fully persuaded of the truth of my position, for the reasons that I have already given. I can quite understand some persons, in the face of a noisy contention, finding a yielding policy the best for them, that is, most congenial to their tastes,- as giving least trouble. I am frequently driven almost to desperation by certain of the youth of our city who steal my flower* and fruit, break my trees, molest my children in the "public streets, &c. If I were to take vigorous but harsh measures against these choice specimens of the kind of article turned out by our much vaunted secular educational machinery, I might put a stop (at least for a time) to these serious annoyances ; but, looking at the trouble of instituting a prosecution as well as the odium (underseved, it is true, but still sure to accrue) attending such a course, one shrinks from it, and the troublesome minority have their way. As with, those educated, so with the system of their education. Let me just add here that under tny system—one already tested , and approved by results—no breach of the could occur by the parsons getting nrrW'kf o * ne schools during school hours, inMSfflifeflywoald not enter the schools either in or out /li P vinced, the only minationalism is rendered utterly impu&^u..:, Messrs. Bree and Runciman, as well as Dr. Maunsell and Mr. Nelson (with perhaps others), attempted to gather classes of the jaded little onC3 after school hours, and with what result? Exactly that which the givers of the psendo-75rivilege intended —failure. And they -would"twit us for not continuing a task designedly .19 hopeless as that of Sisyphus.—l am, &c, - Wii. Teebs. St. Matthew's Parsonage, Feb. 3.