BIBLE IN SCHOOLS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21362, 16 June 1931, Page 10

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS

RIGHTS OF THE CHILDREN t SPIRITUAL SIDE OF EDUCATION. (Per United Press Association.) THAHES, June 15. Archbishop Avcrill, preaching at St. George’s Church last evening on the Bible-in-schools question, stated that in denying the children religions instruction the people were robbing God. They professed to be a democratic .country and also a Christian country, yet in the educational system there was no recognition of God. This was calculated to bias the minds of the children against the very thought of God. Surely the object an! purpose of education was to draw out the development of the whole child. Education should be a training for life and worthy citizenship, which was not complete without the religious side. Opposition in the past to such instruction in the schools had come from Roman Catholics and teachers. The former’s opposition had now been withdrawn, and the Bill coming before the House next session asked for the inclusion in school hours of religious instruction. Any teacher or parent could obtain exemption, but from r recent plebiscite over 80 per cent, of the parents favoured the request.