BIBLE-IN-SCHOOLS MOVEMENT

New Zealand Tablet, 26 December 1912, Page 47

BIBLE-IN-SCHOOLS MOVEMENT

A VIGOROUS REPLY ':■■_' ■'.fl&fi': (By our Auckland correspondent.) y •. ■ : Oft Tuesday evening,. December 10, Rev. . -Father Edge, Ponsonby, delivered a vigorous address in the Town Hall in reply f to the Bible-m-Schools League.- ; said,;: At. a meeting held/here last night Canon Garland honored us with an undue amount of attention. Other .members and supporters of the League have been equally generous towards us. It may be interesting to examine the League's treatment of us and our position. Bible League.—' It must be remembered that the national school system had been denounced by the Roman Catholic Church as godless.' ...'..'■. Reply. —We call the schools, godless; so do you. Why did you bring an organiser to New Zealand to establish a league for the introduction of ' God' and the open Bible into our State schools, unless you were satisfied that -those schools were godless? What is Canon Garland doing here, if he and his friends do not consider our schools godless? ;' On a memorable occasion a few years ago Bishop Neligan told us that we werfe rearing a race of pagans. Where are they reared but in our schools? Pagan schools. A leader-writer in the Herald yesterday morning said: In Queensland, the league's proposals were carried by an overwhelming majority, an immense number of parents thus expressing their wish to have their children reared in' a lets pagan fashion. 'Less pagan' is pagan still, though, in a less degree; and if schools under the League's control are pagan in a less degree,; those into which that , religious organisation - has not yet penetrated must be pagan in a greater degree. Mr. Jolly informed last night's audience that thousands of State school children in New Zealand were growing up in a state of 'white heathenism.'* He . quoted as 'the most painful case of all' 'a boy some twelve years of age, who had never heard of the name of the Lord, except as a swear-word.' Who called the State schools 'godless'? We did: so did you. Who called them 'pagan--?' You did. Bible League.— Catholics are striving to prevent those who support the. State system from making its schools perfect by introducing the one thing needed, viz., the open Bible. Reply.— made the State schools what they are. , If they are godless and Bibleless, ; don't' forget that : you are their fathers. We fought hard to retain God and the Bible in the schools. We retained both at our. own expense. You are perfectly free to have both, if you,'too, are willing to. pay for them. In England the members of the - Protestant - Church, the' Church »of wealth and , privilege, has, during: the past twelve years, closed about 1500 schools, sending their children to the nearest State school, where religious instruction forms no part of the recognised daily curriculum. Soon you will call; these children pagans, and: agitate to have them taught at the State's expensed the religion that to-day you are evicting from their souls. The absence of religious instruction from our State schools is your " work, not ours. You had the majority of votes, the majority that did the work. ■ } Bible League:—'All Churches alike shall have the opportunity afforded them of sending their ministers ■ during school^ to instruct -children^ of their respective denominations. 7 Reply.—The majority of schools in New Zealand ■ are one-room schools. How will the system" work in them? If several ministers give instruction :in the same room at the same, time .there-will' be endless confusion. If each goes separately during school hours there will be little time left for anything else. The children who don't want the instruction of any particular minister must in winter time either do violence ~~""*V xv '^""s a r:"j" a 'V ,jCU v iAU g me instructions, or suffer the inclement weather .-; during the instruction time - Archdeacon Willis (I think) pointed ■ out that in the Cambridge district it would be impossible for

u a v • •i. * • • v u i • «. Lathe Anglican minister to visit each school in the dw trict even- once a week. What will happen there! The teacher will give religious instruction. If the teacher, is a Catholic, Protestant parents will object; • if he is a Protestant, Catholic parents will complain. .Whether he is a Catholic or a Protestant, his instruo • tion must be sectarian, and there is an end 'to the undenominational system. Bible League.- need not concern ..us.-.' If.. the children attending denominational schools were : spread over the State schools, it would mean very little \ extra expense.' Reply.—Let us take the City West electorate. When our Catholic schools re-open there will be about 600 pupils on the rolls. Every State school in this district is full; some are crowded. If we turn our 600 pupils over to the State, the Education Committee, will have to build a new school. The expense works out something like this: Site (2 acres), £3000; build- 1 ; ings (for 600 pupils), £6000; laying out and furnishing, : £1000; total capital expenditure, £10,000; ten coaci::*at an average of £l5O £1500; maintenance, books, cleaning, etc., £500; total annual expenditure, '■ £2OOO. We say nothing for depreciation.. Here in ! Ponsonby we are saving the' public purse this capital expenditure of £IO,OOO and an' annual- outlay of ' £2OOO. The closing, of 127 Catholic elementary schools in New Zealand would mean a large burden to the taxpayer. Canon Garland, cannot see it, nor will he feel it when he is in Australia. As he is a stranger we*may pardon his ignorance of local, conditions. . ' Bible League.—The rates will not be. increased, as the Protestant clergy will do the work gratuitously. Reply.—They started the chaplaincies to public institutions gratuitously; but since they have concluded that they ought to be' paid. Bible League. The Roman Catholics benefit from the State schools. / •■.'•■•. Reply.—Why not ? Don't we pay for them just as everyone else pays ? -'• We pay the State to educate all : our children; but the State educates only half of them. • Therefore for that half we actually pay twice as much; as anyone else pays for the same number. a ;.>->'.>'" ; ',' Bible League.— Only selections will be read. i Reply. —Even selections must be read under qualified teachers. The hardest art: to acquire is the art of . intelligent reading. Millions of Protestants read the Bible without the least show of intelligence.. . Are there not literally millions of them who read the Bible daily, attend Sunday school and churcd,and/are yet sublimely ignorant that, the 'Hail Mary is a part of t St Luke's Gospel, and that St. Luke was the ■■ first 'blasphemer' to give to the Blessed Virgin the august title of Mother of God? ;" Bible League .—Some Catholic parents in Australia send their children to State- schools, therefore they prefer them. ■ * Reply. That does not follow. Some parents in New Zealand send their children to State schools;- but : they can't help it. Twenty districts have sent applica-. tions to Bishop's:; House for Catholic schools, but we " have not the means to open them. Bible League.— enjoy great liberty in: the British Empire. ',.' ' Reply.We are/British . subjects, not aliens. We, enjoy and mean to enjoy the same rights as our fellow- : subjects. : 5 ; We have liberty ;.'• and we may)/ thank our^ 1 selves, for it. We will tolerate no return to the days; ; of Cromwell and Queen Elizabeth.. It is mere clap-' trap to suggest that Protestants have a monopoly ofloyalty to the flag. '. Catholic Lancashire is as loyal to the flag as any part of the Empire. Who monopolised loyalty to the flag when a disproportionately large number of Catholic soldiers, rank and file, upheld its honor' at the', cost of their lives on : the : battle : fields v of : SoutH'Africa every field on which England's honor was at stake? Bible League.— make a poor return for the liberty we give them when they try to interfere with . our national system of education" " .. Reply.—lt is you, not; we, who have imported an • organiser to interfere with our national system o£ education. '