The New Zealand 7 Tablet THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1909. ANGLICANS AND THE SCHOOL QUESTION

New Zealand Tablet, 4 November 1909, Page 1741

The New Zealand 7 Tablet THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1909. ANGLICANS AND THE SCHOOL QUESTION

§N MONDAY, July if,, 1877, a largely-attended meeting of Anglican parents and' teachers, held in Dunedin, carried 'by acclamation' a motion organising a double petition to Parliament praying for a grant-in-aid to the primary schools of their faith and, the other denominational schools throughout New Zealand. Thirty-two years later Anglican primary schools were almost non-existent, and a Synod held last week (October 28) in the same city of Dunedin 'carried unanimously' the following resolution: 'That this Synod desires to express its sense of the paramount importance of the system of education for the young which includes religious instruction, and having this in view approves the principle embodied in the New South Wales education system, by which clergy and accredited teachers of the several religious bodies have permission to visit the State schools within the ordinary school hours for the purpose of giving religious instruction, and resolves that an effort be made to secure for this country facilities of the same nature, and requests the representatives of this Diocese to see that the matter be brought before the next General Synod.'

Time was when the Anglican body throughout 3STew Zealand were cordial co-operators, with' Catholics in the "great work of truly Christian education in a Christian atmosphere. They have, however, largely lost "their old robust and effective faith in the religious school, have lowered their "ideals, have long ceased even to talk about their former high and noble aims, and busy themselves, instead, with inoperative words, words, words, about compromises with the hard secularism of our public school system. The new proposals are indeed a tame and paralytic ending to the high ideals and the high work of our Anglican friends in those days of exuberant and healthy spiritual activity of a generation agone, when they were steeped in religion and realised almost as. fully as Catholics realised then, and realise now, the tremendous perils and possibilities of child-life- and the dread responsibilities of parents and clergy in its regard. "" It is sad to see comrades falling in a -good fight. It is, a desolation to see them throw down their weapons and retire from the struggle. As mattefs stand, Catholics are left almost alone in the fight for the Christian school— and it is no pleasure to us to know that the defection of our former friends of other faiths has left us with something closely approaching a practical monopoly of religious education in New Zealand.

The proposal of the Anglican Synod of Dunedin would leave public instruction, in its substance and atmosphere, secular and "non-religious. It would be rescued from utter godlessness only by a few stolen moments of more or less earnest, or . more or less ' perfunctory religious instruction imparted in. what ■we have elsewhere, designated 'a withering atmosphere' of State agnos-

ticism.' ' Truth that has been merely learned, ' says Schopenhauer, 'is like an artificial limb, a false tooth, a waxen nose: it adheres to us because it has been put on. ' The reader is already aware of the wide distinction that exists between the virtue of religion and mere religious instruction — and, above all, religious instruction given in an atmosphere unfavourable to religious faith . and' feeling, in moments in 1 • which God is permitted-, on sufferance, to intrude for a" "brief half -hour or so into the hard and- unyielding secularism of " the rest of the curriculum, - Religious- truths must, indeed, ' be taught and believed, for they are the only sure foundation of morality, and of effective moral education. But religion is more than mere instruction. It is an intimate training and discipline of the whole man. And even "religious instruction, imparted in such surroundings as axe here contemplated, can seldom rise above the level of a mere' drill. " It will often fall to the level of a mere formalism, an intrusive unreality foreign to the real business of life ; for the •quarantine or divorce of religion from the secular instruction of the -curriculum destroys" the* bond that exists" between the two, while the greater thought and care given to the former can hardly fail to impress the child-mind with a sense of the superior importance of secular to religious knowledge.