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New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6000, 9 February 1881, Page 4

In another column Mr. F. G. Ewington ac dresses the clergy in forcible and earnes language in reference to the Education Ac The first feeling of some of these revercu gentlemen may lead them to be offended £ being spoken to with such candour, but the ought seriously to look at the proposa ma.de. They must admit that the agitatio hitherto for an alteration in the law, so as i introduce religious teaching into the school: has been thoroughly mismanaged ; it has n< secured the co-operation of the laity, an al'ogether has been so ineffective and ui business-like that success seems out < reach. The agitation has come to I looked upon as entirely an affair f< clergymen. The fact is, however, th: a large majority of the laity of th community would be glad to see religioi teaching communicated to the children a tending the schools if they could see how is to be done. They know the excellence of the present system, many remember wh; was the state of affairs when the system w: strictly denominational, and they are afrai of any change. Herein lies the strength < the resistance to the agitation of the Re-" Dr. Maunsell and the Rev. Mr. Tebbs. Tr proposal made by Mr. Ewington is, thi political agitation for a change of the la .

should be abandoned, and that an earnest attempt should-be made, to communicate religious knowledge under the present system. This has not yet been done. The clergy would have to give up all expectation of get- . ting theteachers to dothe work. They might, however, get a large amount of lay aid, but on that subject, Mr. Ewinuton is much better able to speak than we are. They are greatly assisted by zealous laymen in the Sunday-schools, indeed, they have almost abandoned that important sphere of action to laymen. The precise manner in which he proposes to set to work, Mr. Ewinuton does not lay down, but we presume" lie has what he considers a feasible scheme on band, and which he is ready to place before those who are prepared to put their hands to the work, and not merely to join in a futile agitation for a change in the law.