Bible in Schools

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 31, 4 August 1904, Page 3

Bible in Schools

The dqp-utatitm from the Biblc-iu-schools, Conference, which waited on tho Piemicr in Wellington yesterday (says the l Lyttelton Times, July 26), found "Mr. Seddon rather just tihan syinpathel k\ and not at all incli;nic|d to assist m destroy nig the secular syisiem ot education The substance of his ieply \\n,s that if the Referendum Bill passed Uhe I pper House he w mild himself submit to Parliament the necessai y motion dnecting that a rofeiendum should t)e taken' on tihe ' mam question ' Obwously Mr Seddon intended the deputation to understand that the question suggested by Dr. (Jibb would not be the one to appeiar on tihe Noting paper. Indeed, Dr. Gibb's suggestion, if uc nvay say po without appearing riide to a clergyman, was distinctly impudent. The Bible-in-schools party has been telling us fiom the beginning filial it woulkl" not think of advocating anytime so dangerous or eonUrbveisial as Biblo-tcachmg Plain Bible-lessons, to be read regjularly, were the mhs-t it hopod for Yeit Dr. (iibb says now that he and 'his friends would like to ha*ve Che peopio asked whether t/hey -wanted the lessons in the text-Look prepared by the Conference ' taught tb the children in the public schools of the Colony ' by the teachers of tthese schools Dr. (Jibb may rest assured that Parliament will tolerate no such attempt to introduce, the sectarian issue. Bible teaching and Bible reading, we have been told very often, are two Vastly different tinner, ajvd of course they are different But Dr. (Jibb is merely strengthening the hands of the ad- * orates of p^ure secularism. We should be quite justified now m as'siuming that the Bible-in-soh'ools party had been promoting a Bible-reading agitation with tihe obcectl of obtaining BibJe-teaching We have stifcpected that the party would be satisfied with nothing less than religions teaching, but here we have t.heir Case given altogether awjay. It wi,ll be difficult to frame a ballot paper to suit everybody, but clearly before any Changes aire introduced the broad issue must be decided by the people, and the vote

mfcifct be one of approval or disapproval pf tile present secular system. If the text-book prepared by the Conference comes into the ballot paper at all it should be by way, of explanation, and we feather from the Premier's icply that he has n 0 intention, for the present at any rate, of inviting a vote on the merits of tins collection of lesions. If he contemplated tihe submission of an i.s&ue durectly bearing on the te;xt-book he could not well have refused to recommend the printing and distribution of lessons. His warning about the danger of destroying our present admirable system uf ,pnuwu> education probably fell ou .deaf ears., Uuti if/ showed where his own sympathies lay. We can forgive Dr. dibb his sanguine hltlc siorv that the Bi'ble-in-scliools party has the majority of the people behind it. Time will settle that question for us. Meanwhile the hopes, of the religious lnstTuctiohists are centred on the Referendum Mill, and if that mea&Hire ife slaughtered again the Legislative Council will have to face the anger of the Churches.