RELIGION IN SCHOOLS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19459, 15 October 1926, Page 14

RELIGION IN SCHOOLS.

DEFEAT OF THE BILL. VIEWS OF THE ARCHBISHOP. A REFERENDUM PROPOSED. Although the Religious Exercises in Schools Bill failed to pass last session, Archbishop Averill, who is a wholehearted supporter of the measure, is not discouraged, but urges a further prosecution of the campaign. In the course of -his address to the Diocesan Synod yesterday, the Archbishop said:—"The defeat of this bill on its third reading in the Legislative Council was no doubt regarded as a triumph by the opponents of the bill and by the Roman Catholics and secularists, who inspired and instructed the opposition. The threadbare arguments of the Roman Catholics have so often been demolished that it is unnecessary for me to refer to them again; but one does woryier sometimes how much longer the people of New Zealand will be willing to subordinate their just right and claim regarding their children's education to the dictation of the Roman Catholics, representing about 13 per cent, of the population of this country, and the bitterest opponents of the national system of education. "We claim to have a large majority of the people of this Dominion behind us in our desire to see the public recognition of Almighty God in the primary schools of this country, and a place found in (he school curriculum lor the reading if Holy Scripture. If the Government of this country, or the opponents of the public recognition of God in our primary schools, have any doubt upon the question, let- them test the will of the people by means of a referendum., or even by an I'fficiai plebiscite of the parents of the children attending our primary schools. Ii a straightforward question on the subject, is turned down by ihe electors of this country. I, for one. am prepared to accept, the will of the people. "I am not. prepared to believe that New Zealand is satisfied with the present secular system of education, of that the opposition to the bill reflects the conviction of a majority of the members of either House of the New Zealand Parliament. The majority of the taxpayers of this country are compelled to pay for a system of education which they believe to be wanting ip one at lqast of the essentials of real education, and therefore are suffering an injustice. It is illogical to say that the minority would suffer any injustice or hardship if the will of the majority were carried out, because special care is taken in the bill to safeguard the rights of the minority." The Archbishop went on to suggest that the Dominion was living still to a largo extent upon the capital of the religious training recpived by its pioneer settlers. If New Zealanders, he said, were satisfied with the present standard of character and were not aspifing to anything higher, the country's golden age was in the past, not the future. Those who had the interests of Ihe children at heart must continue to fight for their rights and for the privileges which pupils of secondary schools enjoyed. If they took a firm and united stand, they must win. for the cause was a just, and holv one.