A VITAL QUESTION!

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10021, 18 April 1910, Page 5

A VITAL QUESTION!

MONDAY NIGHI'S CONTEST. (To the Editor). Sir,—At a discussion at the recent meeting of the British Medical Association in Wellington, I was much impressed by the statement made by more than one leading medical practitioner that the only way to ' bring the children up with a useful amount of mciral self-contrnl is to in-' troduce religious teaching into the public schools. In order that the rising generation may become the most useful citizens, and live the most useful lives, a high degree of self-con-trol is absolutely,necessary. For thirty three 'years the cresent secular system of educ?ti r n has been in operation, and as a result a proportion of our young population is j practically heathen. Family life ia j out of date, the contagious diseases j are spitading, the birth rate is failing, and the death rate is rising. The remedy is to give the children a high ethical training so as to develop the faculty of self-control, and the ethics of Christianity will effect the object more surely than any system, i

Under the New Zealand Education Act the school prescribed are twenty a week of five days, or four hours a day. Most schools now meet for five hours a day. All that is necessary in order to have half-an-hour a week for Bible reading is for the Education Board to give ijhe School Committee permission to reduce the school hours by half-an-hour once a week, and for the School Committee to set this half-hour aside for Bible readiDg. Those children whose parents have an objection to their learning the Bible in school can stay away. There is no compulsion. I have made enquiries from many places where this system, known as the Nelson system, is*already in operation, and in no case was there any complaint that it interfered with school work. On the other hand many replies indicated that the Bible-reading wa3 ■*. pleasant break in the week's work, and that the tone of the school had improved since its adms'ion.

The Nalso.i system originated in Nelson, about twelve years ago and has been adopted by InvercargiJ], FeiJding, Nanier, Wanganui, Moraington (Duiiedin), Oamaru and Hawke's Bay. Under this system ten thousand children are getting Bible t lessons- in the State schools, but there are one hundred and fifty thousand children who are not getting Bible lessons at school. I appeal to ail those who have the highest interests of this young nation at heart to attend the elections i of the School Committee on Monday, April 2&lh next, and to vote for those candidates who are in favour of the Bible being read in the State shools. In this way only can the Education Boards which are opposed to tJiblereading in the schools, be induced to 1 give the committees the power to set apart a time for Bible-reading, Bible-reading after school hours is a failure, for the pupils are too tm:d to attend.

Some are afraid of Bible-study stirring up sectarian strife. They are judging: by the past, but have failed to notice that the old strife was stirred up by individual or political selfishness or ambition, and not by a knowledge of the Bible.--I am, etc., F WALLACE MACKENZIE. President Householders' League. Wellington, April 17th, 19.10.