EVADING THE LAW.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 24, 12 October 1883, Page 5

EVADING THE LAW.

(From the Tuapelta Times} The correspondence between Bishop Moran and the Minister of Education, which we publish in another column, opens up, in a very serious manner, the question of religious instruction in the State schools. The Bishop directs the attention of the Minister to the action of the School Committee at Milton in authorising the District High School to be opened by reading the Bible and the Lord's prayer, and also to the fact that the school-work in. che Dunedin High School "is daily commenced with prayer, at which all are practically compelled to assist." Dr. Hislop (the Secretary for Education) replies " by direction of the Minister of Education" that the power of dealing with such matters "is conferred by Parliament upon the local authorities charged, respectively, with the administration " of the Education Act and the Otago Boys' and Girls' Schools Act, and that the Legislature has given the Minister of B lucation no authority to interfere." If this dictum is to be accepted, Edncation Boards and School Committees may do pretty much as they please, and can set the spirit and even the letter of the Education Act at defiance. An injunction of the Supreme Court might, we presume, be obtained to enforce the law, otherwise their power to ignore it would seem to be absolute. The Minister of Education is appointed under the Act of 1 877 , and it is-therein enacted that " the Minister shall have the control and direction of the Department of Education as constituted under part I. of this Act, and the officers of that Department, subject to the provisions hereinafter contained, shall generally administer the Act." This authority of general administration clearly applies to the taking care that its provisions are faithfully carried out by the Education Boards and School Committees, as well as by the department officers, and it is the plain duty of the Minister, especially, to guard against any interference with the secular principle, which is, we may say, the basis of the established system. In regard to the particular cases cited by Bishop Moran, we believe we are correct in stating that the attendance of the pupils at the religious exercises with which the schools are opened is not compulsory j,the Dunedin High School, moreover, is not subject to the provisions of the Education Act, and Dr. Hislop is probably right in asserting that the Minister has no authority to interfere directly with that institution. The Milton school is, however, a State school, and being so, the conduct thereof is clearly subject to the administration of the Minister of Education. Very shortly after the Education Act came into force, the very same question was raised relative to instruction other than secular being given in the Sydenham School (Canterbury), where the attendance as in the case of the Milton School was voluntary on the part of teacher and scholars, and the time precedent to the commencement of school work. Dr. Hislop, on this occasion, under date October Ist, 1878, by direction of the then Minister, wrote to the Secretary of the Education Board, Christchurch, on the subject, and we quote from this letter the following pertinent remarks :—": — " The ' four ' hours [section 84 of the Education Act] are here mentioned as the minimum length of time during which a public school is to be kept open each day ; but if a Board or School Committee officially direct that any school shall be kept open for a longer period each day than four hours, then the requirements of the Act as to the character of the teaching applies as much to the whole of this longer period as it does to the minimum period of ' four ' hours, Id other words, the requirements of the Act as to the character of the instruction to be given in a public school applies to the whole of the time during which a public school is kept open, whether that time extend to 'the minimum ' four hours ' or to any longer period ... - The practice followed in the Colombo-street school is simply an evasion of the law of the Colony as laid down in the Education Act, 1877." Will it be asserted for one moment that the Minister of Education has no power to interfere where there is a distinct evasion of the law as the practice at the Milton High School has been thus officially declared to be ; or that it is not his plain duty to act in the first place as his predecessor did in the case of Cslom bo-street school at Sydenham, and point out to the Education Board the illegality of proceedings which receive their sanction generally throughout Otago ? Whether or not religious instruction should be entirely excluded from the curriculum of the State schools is a question it is not to our present purpose to discuss. The Education Act rightly or wrongly absolutely prohibits any instruction other than secular being given, and the Minister of Education is entirely in the wrong in endeavouring to divest himself of responsibility in the matter, and it is an absolute absurdity to express through the mouth of the Secretary of Education that Education Boards and School ..Committees may evade and defy the law at their own will, pleasure, caprice or prejudice.