BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 13108, 23 June 1913, Page 9

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

(To the Editor of the Herald.) Sir, — Now that the agitation on the above subject is so keen and the opinions of the parties pro and con are being so freely expressed, I ask leave in your valuable columns to express the opinions of a secularist. Now, sir, the Dominion of New Zealand is a very mixed people, with very many shades of opinions, botli in politics and religion, therefore the State has no soul; I mean by that, that the State has'fio. set religion, such as used to be the case with some of the older countries of Europe, for as we all know, a /European country was either Protestant or Catholic. Hitherto we have .been a very bappy : people ; .all kinds of religions have very generously contributed to the support or upkeep ol one another, and' scarcely any line of demarcation was being observed.' But now what do we find from one end oi the Dominion to the other but Protestant ministers banding themselves together and doing their level best to make a State religion in New Zealand, and that religion to be Protestant, by making the Bible (authorised version) a book to be read in our public £chools. N I should say that the churches, Sunday schools, and the, home are the proper places' to read the Bible and to teach religion, arid we often hear that the mother of the family is by far the best teacher of religion ; but no, they, too,, as well as the parson want to pile the whole of the responsibility on to the already over-worked school teachers. A great deal has been said about the New South Wales system. Well, sir,if we only take that State as a criterion, what do we find ? It is too well-known to be mentioned,. Why our New Zealand youth of both sexes is not nearly so forward .as those even . from Sydney. Look at the "pushes" and the Court news and yet they have had the Bible in /their :., "x>ls fur the last fifty years. 1 once i„.;rd a minister say, "Only put the Bible into the schools and you will have the biggest crop of freethinkers you ever /saw," Seeing that there is a great diversity of opinion, 1 am of opinion that we should stick to the system that was inaugurated when the schools were taken over by the State; namely, free, secular and. compulsory. I attended the meeting of the Rev. Mr Clarkson held at Whinray's hall and ha certainly did not impress upon me that there was any need to alter the present system ; and I may also inefition that i attended the lecture given by the Very Rev. Bishop Cieary, and I consider that neither of those rev. gentlemen produced any weighty arguments either for or ugainst the system. There is one thing I cannot overlook — a remark made by the Rev. Mr Clarkson. He told us that he asked some of the pupils of •the school at Taihape if any one of them could tell who was the first man. Well, they could not. Then he asked if any one of them could tell the name of the mother of God, and they could, not. Now, sir, after all the time that the clergy have been attending oui 1 schools for the rev. gentleman tc be compelled to admit such ignorance to exist in the present genera, tion, it doesn't speak much for the teaching of his branch. , of the Christian church; and, further, if that be a fact, I fail to" see why they are Bending missionaries to foreign lands to conv.rt the heathen when we have people in our midst so ignorant of the common principles of their own creed. I have said tlie object of putting, the Bible into the schools is to make, a State religion, and I firmly believe ix, to be a fact, because you often hear lecturers declare, "That we are aiming at the unity of faith, unity of tongue, and one banner to jly over the whole of the British Empire."— l am, etc., .OBSERVER.