Bible in State Schools.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume V, Issue 2, 1 August 1914, Page 16

Bible m State Schools.

After taking the trouble to look into the operation of the Bible reading m schools' system m Australian States, Mr G. N. Thompson member for Dunedin North, has come to the conclusion the ' New Zealanders need have nothing ;to fear from its introduction, and he declares without hesitation for ; the •granting of a referendum so that the people as a whole may decide at the ballot box, Mr Thompson "told his constituents m his presessional address that- he would have been quite content to see .the Bible, or parts of it introduced into the schools as a daily part of the curriculum to be used by the teacher. "The morale of our schools is. very high," he went on to say, "and no suspicion of sectarianism . exists. I am an old Bible class leader myself, and want to see the book on which our whole system of morals is based m the hands, of our children. . But I don't like the right of entry. Clergymen, as a rule, are not good teachers, and they are frequently blind to the merits of any but their own particular " doxy." But m spite of these objections, I find by first-hand conversation and information derived from Queensland and New South Wales that the scheme works well there, therefore I intend to support the Referendum."