BIBLE IN SCHOOLS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7038, 28 January 1910, Page 6

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS

DISCUSSED BY WELLINGTON EDUCATION BOARD. TIME REQUIRED FOR BEADING. THE MOTION DEFEATED. Tho question of Bible-reading in the State schools was brought up at yesterday's meeting of the Wellington Education Board. Tho committee of tho To Aro school requested the board to amend tho regulations so as to allow tho school to meet half an hour late ono day in tho week, this timo to be occupied by the reading to or by tho pupils of the Bible, no instruction to bo given except that in the words of tho. Bible.

Mr J. 0. W. Aitken moved in accordance with notice that the regulations bo amended so as to fix tho hours of instruction at fivo houTS for four days of tho week and four and a half hours for tho remaining day. This would give tho school committees, which were in closer touch with the people, tho power to allow Bible reading if they thought fit. Other boards had already done this. Mr A. H. Vile: What boards? Air Aitken : Nelson, Otago and Hawie's Bay anyway, and there may bo others. Mr \V Allan attended tho motion. Mr \V. H. Field, M.P.: Is not this proposal a breach of the Education Act? Mr Viio: it is quite contrary to the spirit of the Act. Mr E. Leo, chairman of 'the board, hoped that tho motiom would be rejected by a decided majority. New Zealand had started well by making its educational system secular, and now it should mot go back. It was quite impossible to keep sectarianism out of the schools if tho Bible wero introduced. Tie Nonconformist woujd point to tho Jew, tho Churchman to tho Presbyterian, and th* Modernist to everybody else. New Zealand was profiting by tho mistakes of older countries, where the teacher had for centuries boon merely a vassal of tho priesthood. In England, at tho present time, it was almost impossible for a man to. get a place on the teaching staff of a secondary school unless he was in holy orders. Again, tho Bible—and he said it with, all respect—was not a book suitable for school reading. It was a great book, but it was incomprehensible to children. Otto or two parts, such as the parables, might' bo understood without instruction, but what oould children make of the epistles, tho Song of Solomon and tho books of Leviticus- and Revelation,?

Mr Vilo opposed the motion because tho syllabus was already crowded, and half an hour could not be spared. Still, there waa any amount of room in our ■schools for moro religion. (Hear, hear.) Mr J. Kebbell supported the motion. Mr A. W. Hogg, MJP~ Mr H. Elder and Mr W. H. lield, HJ?., opposed the motion, the last-named stating that he oould not conscientiously support anything which was against the Bpirit of the la.w. Mr Aitken said that where Bible instruction was allowed in schools it had a unifying effect amongst the various denominations.

Tho motion was rejected by five votes to three. I*or —Messrs Aitken, Allan and Kebbell. . Against—Messrs Vile, Field, Hogg, Elder and Lee.