THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 1904. UNDER A STIGMA

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 33, 18 August 1904, Page 17

THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 1904. UNDER A STIGMA

ffy HE Catholic Bishops of New Zealand, in'their !i two manifestoes, put t'hc whole Biblc-in-i schools movement in the pillory— the spirit winch animates it, the objects which it is #* pursuing. It is, in brief, the story of a 3^ grave public scandal : one non-Catholic ' clergyman to every two State schools in the Colony ; yet, according to official figures, ' only about otic in eight of them (as against about one in four o£ the Catholic clergy) takes the trouble to impart religious instruction there. And,' their Lordships 'truly add, 'no section of the Christian clergy has done moie than those of the Bible-in-schooKs movement to impress the public with the belief that religious education is not a matter worth personal 1 effort or sacrifice.' Here was all .impeachment of Uie gravest kind, affecting, as it 'did, the character of the Riblc-in-schools clergy and

In reading over the well-advertised doings of the Biblc-in-schools leaders, one finds them, too, flitting ' wHh rapid change ' from one secular interest to another. But political agitation seems to absorb most of their spare steam-power, and, somehow, we have yet to hear that they have sufficient zeal for the souls of the children of their flocks to take any advantage of the facilities for religious instruction which are afforded under the present Education Act. c Since 1877,' says' a Presbyterian writer in the ' Outlook ' (Dunedin), ' a generation has been practically lost while we have been grumbling and trying to get others to do our work cheaply— and indifferently,' scheming to shirjc the duty of child-instruction, and to fling ' the first plastic years ' of the people to ' the perfunctory mercies of paid officialism.' 'If the Church,' says the same writer, 1 shirks the problem of the children now, how is she to face the worse problem of a grown and ajienated generation later ?— a generation none the better for a few Bible facts flung in amo<ng other smatterings.' This attempt to relieve the consciences of a section of the Protestant clergy at the expense of the general taxpayer has been styled ' the battle for tihe Bible ' ; but the Presbyterian writer already quoted gives it a truer designation when he styles it ' the battle for the Statetaught Bible— a vastly different thing.'

The Bishops' gentle reminder, and \he manner in which it has been applauded by the secular press of the Colony a.s ' a palpable hit,' have been followed by a significant waking-up of some of the noji-Catholic clergy from Ihc lethargy in which they have beem shugly wrapped for a generation. We recently gave two instances in point. Here is another 'which the Press Association wired from Auckland on la.st Friday :—

1 A meeting of the Bible Instruction in Schools Lea gjue was held at the residence of the Anglican Bishop of Auckland. The members of Ihe League consist of clergymen, head masters, and teachers of Auckland City and suburban schools, members of school committees, and other ladies and gentlemen. The object of the League is to give religious instructions to the children attending the State schools prior to the commencement of ordinary -school v ork The Bishop explained the proposals, and said it, was not a counter movement to the effort for legislation in favor of Bible teaching in schools, but an effort to cope with an immediate need ( anon McMurray, the Rev. Gray Dixon (Presbyterian) and the chairmen of Rdhool committees and others spoke sympathising^ with the movement.'

It is impossible to emphasise too frequently or tro strongly the two facts' which we have frequently brought under the notice of our readers : (1) the callous neglect of the religious instruction of youth by the ttibloiusdhools cleigy, and (2) the testimony of large bodies of Protestants in the Colony that there exist, under the present Education Act, abundant facilities for Uhe minimum doses of religious instruction which they desire to impart. The Presbyterian Synod of Dunedin, for instance (at which the Chairman of the Bible-in-sthools Conference was present), declared on November 1, 1899,

the bona fides of the political campaign which they are conducting. But their leaders make no reply— for the s:m.ple reason that no reply was possible. They allowed the verdict on the damning count to go by default. They, lie quietly down under the stigma of lazing and dozing the precious years away while the children of their various faiths were slipping into indiffereutism or infidelity for lack of effort to save them.

The giited but little-knowta poet, Mackworth Praed, wrote with graceful humor of the vicar of his day :—

' His talk »was like a slieam which runs With rapid change from rocks to roses ; It slipped from politics to puns, It passed from Mahomet to Moses ; Beginning with the laws which keep The planets in their radiant courses-, And ending with some precept deep For dressing eels or shoeing horses.'

that ' not only can ministers accomplish a great deal under the present Education Act, but tjiat they will take this work vigorously and earnestly in hand •' when once they-'become alive to its practicability, as they must be already convinced of its absolute need. For every argument in favor of political agitation is tenfold an argument in favor of " doing' what we can " under the present Act.'