RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10092, 4 March 1911, Page 7

RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.

PRACTICE AT TECHNICAL COLLEGE. THE FEAR OF SECTARIANISM. The Board of Governors ,of the Christohurch Technical College was last evening engaged for a short time on a discussion regarding religions education.

A letter was received from Mr George Speirs, Eligh's Road, Papanui, as follows :—" Will you bring the following under the notice of the Board of Directors. I am informed that prayers and Bible reading take i>lace at the Technical College every day, which is illegal. The Education Act provides for a secular education. I hereby enter my objection to it, and urge your Board to see that the Act is enforced. I have a son attending your school., but do not desire that ho should be sent to his place during the said prayers and reading, because that would cause him to be marked as something different from the others, my purpose being to prevent anything taking place which interferes with the secular education of our children. I put this matter before your Classes and Appointments Committee, and received the enclosed reply : —' Your letter of the 16th was placed before the committee at its meeting on Thursday last, and I was instructed to say that no pupil is required or has been required to attend prayer and Bible reading, and further, that the practice adopted has the approval of the committee.—John H. Howell, Director and Secretary.' " Mr H. R. Rusbridge said that the letter had caused him genuine surprise. Had tTie matter been brought under his notice earlier he would have made strong comment. No one thought more higly of Mr Howell as a man than be did ; but the Board had clearly to recognise that the school was set up merely for technical education, and did. not in any shape or form show leanings to a religious creed. He had recently discovered that a man who had two sons at the College had refused to send two other sons owing to the religious instruction. The College was sanctioned for general education and should lend 1 no support to any creed. By its beginning in religious teaching it was launching itself upon a sea of troubles. He had always had a great admiration for the persons who had instituted secular education in the dominion. They had proved themselves wise in their day. and had been keenly aware of the trouble that would ensue were religion introduced. It was no part of the function of that body to introduce such an element. The director was doing what he thought best, but in the speaker's opinion he was committing an error of judgment, and in such a young country, with 'mixed views, such a step was fatal. The remarks about the staff carried no weight, but it was no part of the duty of the College to deal with religion in any way. Had he known earlier of the practice he would have raised the question. The children taught were drawn from the mass *of the people, and had to earn their living later on, and incalculable harm might be done. There, was a place and a time for everything, and the present action was out of place. On a vote being taken the letter was received. Mr Rusbridge then moved that it should be ; a request to the director that the practice of prayers and Bible-read-ing should be discontinued. The motion lapsed for want of a seconder, and the matter dropped.