BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19691, 18 July 1927, Page 12

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

Sir, —While accepting Canon James' statement that the figures of the socalled "plebiscite" recently quoted from Wanganui are for that town only, I would state that any blunder was in the indefinite wording of the report, and the indecent haste on the part of the Wanganui Bible in Schools Branch in publishing an incomplete partial return, without commenting to that effect. As original permission to obtain parents' names was from the' education boards, the only inference to be drawn from published figures, in the absence of comment, was that they represented the district governed by that board. However, when the totals are published in Parliament, people may work out for themselves the proportion of voters, there being approximately 107.000 parents entitled to do so. Canon ! James' charge that we have incited school committees not to give lists of parents to his league is grotesquely incorrect. We have drawn public attention to the. worthlessness of the ballot paper as an unprejudiced attempt to secure anything but a partisan vote, and also to the unconstitutional act of the Minister of Education in allowing his official sanction to appear on the paper. Apart from this we will invite the Canop to define our "pathetic and desperate" attempts to influence the committees. Our aim is to brine: before the people both s'r'es of the Bible in Schools question. The greater number at present have only the side that has been unceasinglv given them from pulpits on Sundays. We have nlreadv privately challenged the Bible in Schools League to meet a representative of the State Education Defence League in public debate, and our offer was refused. We now publicly renew that challenge and the answer will be the measure of their <^ rt sire to permit the public impartiallv to learn both _ sides and judge for themselves. It will he futile for them, with their large following ■of ministers and clergy, to plead a dearth of debaters to state their case. C. E. M' tor. President.