BIBLE SCHOOLS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 149, 16 August 1911, Page 5

BIBLE SCHOOLS.

DUNEDIN PRESBYTERY’S VIEWS. (Per Press Association.) Dunedin, August 15. The Dunedin Presbytery, after an exhaustive discussion in committee lasting upwards of two hours, unanimously passed the following motion: “That this Presbytery affirms the general principles of the New South Wales Act relative to religious instruction in schools, namely, (1) That children in State schools receive general Biblical instruction by school teachers from a book containing selected passages from the Old and New Testaments, the book to bo prepared by the Department of Public Instruction ; (2) that accredited representatives of different churches bo permitted to teach children of their denominations for a limited period during school hours; but in cases where desirable, children of different denomina tions may he grouped for the purpose of religious instruction. In such cases teaching must be non-sectariap; (3) a conscience clause for parents and pupils conceding that the portion of clause 2 is not a part of the New South Wales Act, but is a rider proposed -by the Presbytery- to ■'meet certain circumstances that may arise. It is known that this grouping is very frequently done in New South Wales.