UNWILLING OR UNQUALIFIED TEACHERS.

Colonist, Volume LV, Issue 13613, 3 January 1913, Page 4

UNWILLING OR UNQUALIFIED TEACHERS.

NEW ASPECT OF CAMPAIGN

(Special to "The Colonist.")

Christchurch, Jan. 1

At the- Students' Christian Union conference at Rangiora yesterday the Rev. J. MacKenzie addressed tho meeting on the Bible in schools qu&stion, and the .subject evoked keen discussion. Various questions were asked, "and points elucidated, bearing on the general question, and the- Bible in schools campaign now in progress. The speaker, and the chairman (Mr. N. Gibson, M.A., housemaster of Christ's College) laid special stress on the point that the education of children having been undertaken by the State, its duty was ;to see that the; education was of the highest moral value and good, and that could not be attained without the aid of Bible training. The position of teachers unwilling, or not qualified, to give Bible instruction was discussed, and the chairman, summing up on the point, expressed the opinion that when the State recognised its duty: to the children in .providing for Bible instruction in the schools the teachers, referred to would have no function ia the State.

Commenting on Mr. Gibson's statement,,the"Lyttelton Times" gays^Mr. N. Gibson was less tactful than are most of the other advocates of Bible teaching in the State schools in suggesting that a time was approaching when teachers who were unwilling, or Tinquajjfied, -to give Bible instruction ''would,'have no function in the State." One of the chief arguments against religious teaching in the State schools is that it would lead to discrimination against teachers who were not prepared to take part in the work, and if Mr. Gibson'f? words meant anything at all they meant that he would not look upon such a development with disfavour. If this is the official attitude of the Bible-in-JSfaihools League it)ought to be/frankly announced at once. ~. .- We should regard with very grave alarm a proposal to deny employment to those teachers who were unwilling, or unqualified, to assist in the movement. There must b© liberty of conscience in matters of this kind at all costs, even at the cosb of. the exclusion o|' the Biblo from tho schools, and if Mr. Gibson was vsuoaking with authority his utterance will give an entirely new complexion to the campaign.