The Bible in Schools.

Otago Witness, Issue 1596, 24 June 1882, Page 23

The Bible in Schools.

The Otago Bible-in-Schools Association have adopted a petition for presentation to Parliament, and copies of it are to be sent to the principal centres of population for signature. It is being numerously signed in the Octagon. The principal clauses of the memorial are these : —

That it is impossible at a general election correctly to gabher tho opinions and wishes of the electors on this important question, seeing that the isauo is involved with other political issues of an important charixctcr. That your petitioners submit that the results already obtained justify the belief that an overwhelming majority of the people of this Colony desire the reintroductiou of the Bible. That if your honourable House is not prepared to accept the results already obtained as decisive of the question, and to provide accordingly for an amendment of the Education Act, your petitioners humbly pray that a vote of the electors be taken by a plebiscite on this question alone. Your petitioners humbly submit that a matter involving the highest and most important interests of the future citizens of this Colony may well justify such a step being tikon. Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that you will take the matter into the consideration of your honourable House, and devise such means of arriving at the minds of the electors of tho Colony or otherwise as to your honourable House may seem meet.

The following petition on the opposite side of the question has been prepared by the Committee of the Dunedin JTreethought Association :—: —

1. Th it your petitioners view with regret tho efforts of many of their fellow colonists to introduce sectarian religious teaching into the public schools of tho Colbnv.

2 That your petitioners believe there can be no true religious freedom in a State where any particular set of riligioua opinions is taught by the State at State expense. 3. That your petitioners submit that ordering the Bible to be read in the public schools is making provis'on for the teaching of one Bet of religious opinions. i. That if it be said the Bible should be read for its moral piecepts, your petitioners submit that all the morel precepts in the Bible can be iaculcated without, reading the Book. 5 That hitherto the reading of the Bible has, in tho opinion of your honourable House, not sufficed to make good cisinens as the passing of the West Coast Peace Preservation Bill shows. ti. That your petitioners believe that the people of this Colony are anxious to maintain the present free, secular, and compulsory system of education, and this explains why the majority of the members of your honourable ilouso were returned pledged to maintain the present sj stem. 7. That if it be said political issues other than ihe reading of l,he Bible in public schools determined many electoral contests, your petitioners submit that this is the strongest evidence of the popularity of tho present Education Act, and shows that the people view other questions aa of more moment than Bible-reading in schools. Moreover, your petitioners believe that when the people desiro a chango in the present education system it will be made a burning political question. 8. That if it be siid that the people should be asked directly to vote whether the Bible should or should not bo read in th • public schools, then your petitioners would humbly suggeat tha following considerations :— (ft) That such a proceeding is subversive of representative government. (0) That whon in modern times a plebiscite has been taken it cannot be said that the country that haa adopted such a method of government has been very successful. (c) That tho only case in which » plebiscite might be sanctioned is when it was desired to alter tho Constitution and the alteration was not agreed upon by bothChambeis. 9. That if your House determines that the questio'u of bible-re id ng in schools should be submitted to a duett \\ tc of the people, jour petitioners would humuJ v submit that there .ru other cogiiate questions on which it mL'ht bo desirable to obtain un expression of popular opinion— such iw whether the l.iigc and va!uiblo endowments now hold b.\ various religioiuaecte in this Colony oh uld not be taken ovji" !<y the State for o uciMdikil puipose.-. 10. That your petitioner's believe that a majority of tho colonists would vote for Mich endowments being •uadi- av;u j.b!e for educational uses.

11. That yu'ii petitioners admit th»t Freethinker* .xw in a Mjnll minority in this Colony, but hitherto it 'ins not boi'n coniii'i-iuKi sufficient justification hra Joiouy to tejr'h aivlwion 1 hat that religion ij bt'icvil i;j by ii majority of colonists.

Your petitioners would therefore humbly pray that no alteration be made in the present unsoctarin u vhV m of '''•;■> '^i'" 1'!,1 '!, ;u;'' thus *ib<\fc i^Ji^i'in .!•)•) others !l'h\ 'iofc lie taxed for tho iucul'"';La of i iiiiiin. i n.i>\ ,jene n erii>!>*<nn.

A in! your petitioners, a? in duty bound,' will ever ■nay.