The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1914. COUNTED OUT

New Zealand Tablet, 5 November 1914, Page 33

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1914. COUNTED OUT

HAT miserable legislative, bantling, the Re- ■ jlSll , ligious Instruction in Schools Referendum |PjL • Rill, has now definitely received its quietus. After passing the purely, formal first -read ; • in g it was referred to the Education Committee. of the House, who were charged \ 4sS* ™ , w ifh the task of hearing witnesses for and w - against the measure; and after taking ' voluminous evidence, the Committee, by a large majority, have reported strongly against the proposal. On the general question of religious instruction, and of the particular scheme advocated by the Bible in State Schools-League, the Committee report: ‘The Committee have, heard evidence on the subject matter of these petitions, much latitude being allowed witnesses in the . desire to get all the facts,' and- they are of opinion that the New Zealand State system of free, secular, and compulsory education under . which bur children have received incalculable benefits, and under which, after 37 years’ experience, our people, the immense majority of whom have - passed through our schools, compare most- favorably morally, socially, and religiously with the people of any other part of the world, should be maintained. The Committee are fully alive to the value of Biblical and religious, instruction, and are of opinion that full opportunity should b‘e given , for the- adoption of a voluntary system such as that known as the Nelson system in which the teaching is imparted outside the statutory school hours, under which the State exercises no authority -in religious matters, ’ and under which there is no compulsion or violation of the rights of conscience.’ And on the particular proposal for a referendum, provided in the Bill, they declare emphatically: ‘ The Committee are of opinion that the proposals in the Religious Instruction in Schools Referendum Bill, introduced this session by the Hon. Janies Allen, should not be allowed to become law.’ The report Was submitted to the House on Friday afternoon; and after some .discussion,- in the course of which several members warmly commended the finding of the Committee, a dissentient member, Mr. .J. Dickson, Member for . Parnell, ,moved that the v report be referred back to the Committee for further , consideration. This resolution was important, as the issue plainly involved a test vote on ,the whole subject of 1 the- Bill. On a'division being taken, the amendment was rejected by 46 votes to 17, and the report was ordered to be laid on the tableland ; to/ be printed. The division list has not been telegraphed in the Press Association report, but it will be;published in our columns as soon as it .is ■ available in Hansard. ■-.< vj' -.'- -

The, finding, of the Committee and the vote in the r ‘House spell a ’ complete - defeat for the Bible in State Schools League. Like the Kaiser, they entered on the campaign with 1 high notions as to what they 1 were going to accomplish. Like that misguided egotist, also, they boldly claimed” God* as their f ally. ’■ They represented; (they , said) 74 per,cent, of the population; they were fighting ‘the battle of /.the Bible’; they had pledge • cards-, or petition cards signed • by 150,000 q electors/ Nothing, in short; could stand ' against them. Every iron' was put in the fire in the effort to achieve success; appeals were ?• made to ,; bigotry,' sentiment, and • selfinterest; threats, ' persuasion, pressure of every kind, were brought to bear. Parliament, like Liege was to be carried with a rush. And the end* of it ?all has been defeat by a nearly three - to one majority . , The League, it is true, still keeps up talk as to what it is going to do in the coming election, and its activity in this direction will require watching but for / all practical purposes the bubble has been pricked, and the movement now ■ stands revealed in its true dimensions. , Parliament has, in this respect, adequately reflected public opinion on the proposals; and candidates of all shades of political / opinion may be safely trusted to realise that they no longer need to stand in awe of the bluff and tall talk so freely indulged in by the League. I The debacle , complete though it is, has latterly been quite expected. From the time when Canon Garland appeared; before the Committee in an attempt to cross-examine Bishop Cleary, the League organiser/ and 1 his cause have become swiftly, and surely ; discredited. Canon Garland himself appears to have made anything but a favorable impression'upon the Committee. The press reports of the cross-examination to which he was subjected by 'Professor Hunter, Mr. John Caughley, and Bishop Cleary, are" exasperatingly inadequate, but they are sufficient / to show that the League representative cut a sorry figure. Members of the Committee themselves felt called upon at times to resent his lack of straightforwardness. Mr. A. S. Malcolm, for example, Member for Clutha, an ex-teacher and prominent Presbyterian, protesting against the evasiveness of the /.. answers he was receiving, declared warmly that ‘ he understood the ■ English- language and was not goipg to be humbugged by the witness.' At other stages of the proceedings, Messrs. McCallum, Statham, and Hanan pulled the /Canon sharply up. And Mr. Caughley, ‘ unsatisfied,’ as the press report puts it, ‘ with the answers,' bluntly summed the whole position up by remarking that ‘ Canon Garland,' who should be the man most able to ~ /'explain the whole system, was unable to give a straight answer.’ At the very outset of the present campaign we predicted that, starting, as he did, as an apostle of bigotry. Canon Garland was going the sure way to bring -about disaster to his side. /That prediction has now been amply fulfilled. «;/■ * , & ; Two of the arguments against the League’s scheme which have always been specially stressed by Bishop Cleary are that the State has neither the right nor the competency to teach religion, and, that the scheme in- ' volved an outrageous violation of the : rights -- of con- - science of the teachers; and the form of the Committee’s report shows that these are the' derations which have had’'especial weight with the Committee in arriving at their formal finding on the subject. It will, indeed, we think, be readily admitted by all the interested parties that the splendid-fight put up by Bishop Cleary Throughout this agitation, and especially before the Com- / mittee, has .been- a most important; if not the deciding | factor in / bringing about the complete / collapse, of f ; the : . movement. : It is, in our humble judgment, the especial - merit of Bishop Cleary’s magnificent -championship of % the cause of truth and justice that -he has from first to . last of this long and strenuous tontroversy, never made -a single sacrifice of ‘ principle, nor’abated pne jot r or - tittle/ of the essential position' of the Catholic Church. Steadfastly and unflinchingly he has represented the . Church as always and ever the true - friend of religious . education ; and-he has placed in the very forefront of "/his /©whence; the willingness - of the ''Catholic leaders to. meet all other interested parties h conference upon

iiijw*! virji flu* ‘i»w i. '•■ •■ -•>.* w., ....-.... ... ■• .... ~,. ■ w..>;- •. r» »'■,•’ •*• w* *« **•••*' this subject. ‘ If' the Bible-m-Schools League, ’ he has" said, ‘.or other 'Wrested| parties are filling to Sit around a table with us. and accept or--recognise* the principle of the equal rights of conscience of all, we will gladly .and joyfully, .meet them.' To that, sooner or later, the Bible-in-schools' leaders in this country must* eventually cOme. They will do at last what they ought; to have done '- at first--^oil'sider/s|and 1 consult others, and especially that 'Staunch' and’* consistent. exponent of religious f education) the Catholic, Church. Then, perhaps,— certainly not; till • —the : ghost of this vexed' education problem • will / be- permanently laid. • •//'•> 'h';.:-;,'- ; : : .