EDUCATION AND RELIGION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18387, 1 May 1923, Page 6

EDUCATION AND RELIGION.

ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHOOL. FOUNDATION STONE LAID.; fjy TELEGRAPH.— , ASSOCIATION.]. - ~ THAMES. Monday. The foundation stone :of the new . socman Catholic school, Thames, - was laid and blessed on Sunday afternoon in the presence of a very largo gathering, by Bishop Liston. The now ■ building will consist of four largo class rooms in bruik, and will cost £4000, £2000 of \ which is in hand. Mr. E. Miller (the retiring Mayor of Thames), and Mr. T. W. Rhodes, M.P. (the incoming Mayor), welcomed the Bishop to the district. In the course of his address Bishop Liston deplored the enforced absence of religion from the school life of th« great majority of New Zealand children, and asked what right any system had to sterilise education in a Christian country ? If there was a power in this Christian land to banish religion from school life what guarantee was there I that the power might: not banish every- . thing religious from the life of the individual, the family, and the nation? Surely it was time for the leaders of l Christian peoples to come together, and. joining forces in this vital matter, insist on the right of the Christian children of this country to receive a Christian | education in the schools.