BISHOP'S STATEMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22469, 13 July 1936, Page 11

BISHOP'S STATEMENTS

CRITICISM BY MINISTERS BIBLE TEACHING IN SCHOOLS [from our own correspondent] HAMILTON, Sunday The statements made by the Rt. Rev. C. A. Cherrington, Bishop of Waikato, at the annual meeting of the Ashford Missionary Association, as reported in the Middlesex Chronicle, and reprinted in the New Zealand Herald on July 7, were discussed at a meeting of the Hamilton Ministers' Association, and strong exception was taken to some of them The following is a statement issued by the association: —"The statement that since 1870 the name of God had not been mentioned in the schools of New Zealand, and that no religious instruction of any sort was given, is contrary to fact, and most unfair to the churches which are teaching in the schools under the Nelson system, whereby almost one-third of the children of New Zealand are given Bible lessons. "The bishop's statement regarding finances would also suggest that in the Waikato no other efforts were being made to supply the spiritual needs of the people, while, as a matter of fact, the other religious bodies have wellestablished churches, missions, and special missions to the Maoris. These are adequately administered," and there is no lack of New Zealand money to carrv on the work.

"The meeting expresses the view that a well-managed area whose religious life is healthy should never be financially embarrassed, and the somewhat pitiful pictures being drawn at Home by Bishop Cherrington, if the report is true, would suggest to the Home folk that there were few re-ligious-minded and generous-hearted people in New Zealand, or that we were so poverty-stricken that practically little religious work could be carried on in the Dominion, while the very opposite is the case."