BIBLE IN SCHOOLS

Southland Times, Issue 21856, 5 November 1932, Page 5

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS

LARGE MEETING OF LEAGUE. MORE VIGOROUS POLICY RECOMMENDED. (Per United Press Association.) Masterton, November 4. What is considered the largest meeting of the Dominion executive of the Bible in Schools League took place on Thursday in Wellington. Representatives attended from the North Island and from Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill. Canon James presided in the absence of Archbishop Averill. The committee on organization recommended a more vigorous and progressive policy. This was approved and an additional fulltime organizer was appointed with the object of persevering with the league’s activities until Parliament either accepts the Religious Instruction in Public Schools Enabling Bill or adopts some measure equally satisfactory. Recent developments have stirred the feelings of the league as they have not been aroused since the early activities of 1913. In reporting on the fortunes of the league’s Bill in the Legislative Council, the league’s Parliamentary Committee stated that the acid test had been placed on the professions of faith uttered by their opponents in their support of the Nelson System. The committee had been ready to accept such a definition of the Nelson system as now carried on as would give it a clearer legal standing. Their opponents refused this, just as they had refused the league’s Bill. A long discussion on the Nelson system revealed the active and regular participation of the great majority of Ministers present, but the unanimous verdict showed a growing sense of its inadequacy. Here it is carried on outside school hours. It is not part of the educational system. The objects of the league include daily acknowledgement of God in the school system, restoration of the Bible to its place in education and the supply of needs of country schools. These objects prevent the league from accepting the Nelson system as their goal, while members make use of it as a makeshift. Representatives of eight denominations in the league unanimously reaffirmed support of the Religious Instruction Bill with its freedbm from coercion of either teachers or pupils.