FLOUTING THE LAW

Southland Times, Issue 18972, 20 June 1923, Page 4

FLOUTING THE LAW

A false step was made the other day by the clergymen in Wellington who are engaged in giving Bible lessons at a school there, when they admitted that they were prepared to flout the law. It seems that these lessons were being given in school hours, and one of the ministers w r rote to Mr John Caughley, of the Education Department, asking him if this was legal. Mr Caughley wrote back declaring that Bible instruction during ordinary school' hours was illegal. The ministers promptly replied with the suggestion that the Government intended to put before the House a bill making provision for Bible lessons in the school, but that in the meantime, in spite of the legal obstacles, they would continue giving the lessons. Mr Caughley’s retort was to the -point. He asked the ministers if they were prepared to accept the fact that their behaviour in flouting the law of the land was not a good lesson for the children, and was likely to undo any good done by the lessons. This was a pertinent question, and it will be interesting to see how the ministers reply to it, because the continuance of Bible instruction in the face of the declaration of the law, and in the teeth of a ruling to the effect that it is illegal, is a glaring example of zeal running riot to the injury of the cause. Supporters of the Bible in school cannot afford to tolerate such a deliberate defiance of the law, and we have no doubt that the zealots of the Karori School will be the direct cause of a distinct hardening in the opposition to the movement.