BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 6871, 15 July 1909, Page 6

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

Tlie Wellington Diocesan Synod has, through some of its influential members, expressed the opinion that it is of no use making any further demands upon Parliament to interfere with New Zealand’s free, secular, and compulsory system of education, and it has practically decided to try and get in by the back-door by bringing sectional interests to bear upon the Education Boards of the Dominion to in--troduco a system by which clergy and (the accredited teachers of the several religious bodies shall have permission to visit the State schools within the ordinary school hours for the purpose |of giving religious instruction. The friends of our national education system will require to keep an observant eye on this latest device for getting behind the Legislature and the Education Act. In some communities the clergy in their capacity as local politicians have managed to gain considerable influence with the School Committees and Education Boards. This 'influence has been largely exercised in jtho matter of appointments, particularly in a denominational sense. This factor has had no small part in creating the prejudice against clerical interference of which the Rev. Mr Sprott has spoken so feelingly. Any attempt which the clergy may now make to introduce “ religious instruction ” into the schools, especially by “ the accredited teachers of the varilous religious bodies ” will be met with stern resentment by a largo section of parents. There are many people in this community who have no practical or theoretical objection to Bible-read-ing in schools who will have nothing to do with religious instruction, especially religious instruction such as jmight bo provided by zealous but {ignorant laymen. Any attempt to initerfere with the syllabus, either by making religious teaching a part of ;the curriculum or by a subtle adaptajtion of means to an end, is bound to precipitate a. bitter conflict between clerics and laymen. If, as Mr Sprott ■indicates, a prejudice has been created lagainst anything which is not a moveiment of laymen, it is because more zeal than discretion has characterised |the methods hitherto employed by the .clerical advocates of religious teaching. This latest proposal to side-track {Parliament is not calculated to restore confidence. The fact is that the tendency of the clergy to enter the political lists has weakened their authority in a sphere in which in former years they held undisputed sway. In |some respects the influence they have 'exerted in the economic and political arenas has been for the public benefit, 'but the tactics of the generals of the Church militant have not always reicommended themselves to the good sense of an educated democracy. The element of controversial bitterness has created inevitable resentment. It is this factor which has been largely instrumental in preventing a modus vivendi in regard to the Bible-in-schools question. This issue may for the present be regarded as quite outside the range of practicability.