PRIMARY EDUCATION

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12198, 24 July 1925, Page 7

PRIMARY EDUCATION

AND RELIGIOUS TEACHING STATE SCHOOL SYSTEM THREATENED PETITION TO PARLIAMENT Tlie following is a copy of a petition to Parliament presented by Sir John Luke, member for "V>’-lUngton North: 1. Your petitioners believe that the success of the .system of primary education in New Zealand and the harmony with which it has worked would have been impossible if a fruitful cause of trouble in other 'ands had not been avoided by the exclusion of religious teaching from the curriculum. 2. For about twenty years prior to the year 1914, the secular character of the system was the subject of persistent attacks which culminated in the Religious Instruction in Schools Bill, introduced into, your honourable House iri that year, and referred with the numerous petitions relating thereto to the education committee for consideration. 3. The report presented to the House by the chairman of the said committee on each of the petitions favouring the said'Bill was as follows: — I am directed to report that the committee is of opinion that the proposals in the Religious Instruction in Schools Referendum Bill, introduced this session by the Hon. James Allen, be not allowed to'pass. 4. . The report presented by the said chairman on each -of the 78 petitions praying . that the national system "of education on its present free secular and compulsory basis be maintained, was as follows: I am directed to report that the committee has heard evidence on the subject matter of these petitions—much latitude being allowed witnesses in the desire to get alt the facts—and is of opinion that the New Zealand State system of free secular and com"pulsory education (under _ which our - children have received # incalculable benefits, and under which, after 37 years* experience, our people—the immen6e majority of whom nave passed tjirough onr schools—compare most ‘ favourably morally, socially, and religiously with the people or any other part of the world) should be maintained. 5. The report presented by the said chairman on each of the 90 petitions objecting to certain provisions embodied in the said Bill repeated the report last above quoted and added the following clause: Further, that the committee is fully alive to the value, of Biblical and religious instruction, and is of opinion that free opportunity should be given . ■ for the adoption of a voluntary system, such as that known as the Nelson System, ip which the teaching is Imparted outride, the statutory school hours, under which the State exercises rio authority in religious matters, and under which there is no compulsion pr violation of rights of conscience. '6. The foregoing reports were ajl presented to your honourable House on the 80th October, 1914, and ap. proved by a vote of 46 to 17. 7, The decision of the House waa confirmed at the general election of 1914, by,-the Overwhelming defeat of the Bible'in schools party’s proposals, which, was so overwhelming that the question has since been' regarded by the electors as. a dead issue, and your petitioners believe that at _ the last general 7 election all the parties were committed to the 1 support of the secular principle. " , .. , 8. Your petitioners accordingly note with regret that a Religious Exorcises in Schools Bill is now before Parliament which seems to .them to violate that principle and to threaten the State school system with the introduction of religious distractions and religious strife. .. 9) Your petitioners respectfully submit that “a'Bill intituled an Act to provide for the performance of certain religions exercises in schools, and providing that these exercises shall consist of:— ' _ „ , (a) /Hi© recitation of the Lord s Prayer; . (b) The singing or, recitation of a hymn; and (o) The reading by the teacher or pupils of a Bible lesson is on the . face of it a plain violation of the secularity of the system,, that . at the Same time the limitations imposed upon the teaching would make it of no real service to the cause of true - religion: and that to pass the Bill would be te abandon the attitude of neutrality which the State has hitherto adopted to religious issues, to ' expose the teachers to serious risks, and to inflict a grave injustice upon denominations and individuals unable to share in the exercises. Your petitioners, therefore, .humbly pray that the Religious Exercises in schools Bill be not passed, that the free compulsory and secular character of the present system be strictly maintained, and that your _ petitioners may be beard in opposition to'the Hitt.