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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 3a

Secular Education Defence League

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Secular Education Defence League

Object.

The object of the League is to maintain a purely secular system of education in the State schools of the Dominion.

Methods.

The League proposes to attain its object by:—
(a)Educating public opinion in the principles of the League.
(b)Securing the co-operation of societies formed for the same purpose.
(c)Defending teachers when their position is unjustly rendered insecure by reason of religious difference or sectarian influence.

Membership.

Anyone can become a member of the League by paying a minimum annual subscription of one shilling.

The League's Affirmations.

The League affirms:—
(1)That it will resist any attempt to interfere with our purely secular system of State education.
(2)That in matters of religion strict neutrality is the only just attitude that a State can assume towards its citizens.
(3)That to introduce any form of religious instruction into our State system of education would be detrimental to the best interests of the schools, leading to sectarian strife among the children, and imposing a religious test upon the teachers.
(4)That to determine the question of religious instruction, or Bible-reading, in schools by means of a referendum would be absolutely subversive of the neutrality of the State in matters of religion.
(5)That the Nelson system, even if it be within the letter of the Education Act, is an ingenious evasion of its real spirit and intent, and that the League will oppose this innovation.
(6)That the League is strongly opposed to the introduction of the New South Wales text-book into the State schools of the Dominion.

Officers of the League.

  • President: John Gammell, Esq., B.A., Seatoun Heights, Wellington.
  • Secretaries: Dr. T. A. Black and Henry Joosten, Esq., Wellington.
  • Treasurer: Professor Mackenzie, Wellington.