THE EDUCATION BILL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2719, 25 April 1906, Page 23

THE EDUCATION BILL.

>' LONDON, April 17. Dr Ingram (Bishop of London), in a letter to a rural dean, declares that it is » intolerable that purely ethical treatment ' of the Bible should be permitted in schools on which tlia Church spent £40,000,000 in . ! order to educate the children according to j the tenets of the Church of England. Ho ' say 6 that the Education Bill violates the first principles of religious equality, and ; the extended facilities proposed are practically useless. He proposes that a series of mass meetings should be held in order to protest against the measure. } At the annual Independent Labour Con- ' ference at Stockton Mr Snowden declared f that the party would give unqualified opposition to the Education Bill, since the Government had surrendered to sectarian clamour. Mr Ramsay MacDonald^ M.P., „ was elected president. The Bishop of Bathuret, who is at present on a visit to England, in a letter to The Times, suggests that the New South Wales Public Instruction Act is well worthy of English consideration as a solution of the definite religious instruction difficulty. j : Two ■ thousand- delegate representing 57,000 National Union teachers, are hold- ' ing ; a conference at Scarborough. Mr •Sykea, the president, expjessed'the liveliest ■ j satisfaction at the proposed • abolition of religious tests for teachers. He believed that parents would be satisfied with the : Government's^ retention of the Cowper \ Temple clause in regard to leaching. I [The Cowper Temple clause is as fol- ; lows: — '"No religious catechism or reli- i gious primulary which is characteristic of , ! any particular denomination shall be ' i taught in the school."] i | April 18. ; The Rev. Dr Clifford, who has been ; interviewed, states that between 1833 and ' 1 1901 the sum of £90,000,000 was .spent ' j out of rates for education in church schools. ' The Education Bill, he said, treated the ! Anglicans and the Roman Catholics too ! ] generously. j *