The "Timaru Herald" in a Leading Article on 12th July, 1880, Says :—

"For one who desires to see the children of the colony trained philosophically, there are a hundred who desire them to be brought up religiously. The people of this country, like the parent stock, are governed in their daily life by religious ideas. Their social, page 49 and even their political institutions, recognize the existence of religion. So much is this the case, that the exclusion of religious teaching from the education of the young, if carried out as strictly as some would wish it to be, would actually constitute the rising generation a class of foreigners, as far as their, habits of thought are concerned.

"It is under these circumstances that Sir William Fox, and those who think with him, are endeavouring to engraft on the noble system of public education now firmly established in New Zealand, a provision which will combine religious teaching with the ordinary secular instruction of schools. They will be met at the outset by a host of difficulties, which have nothing to do with the fundamental question of whether or not it is desirable to educate the people in religious principles. The chief of these is the difficulty of reconciling the differences of the various religious denominations. The most ardent advocates of religion must discern a broad distinction between religious education and sectarian education; and the weightiest task that devolves on those who have taken up this subject, is that of devising a course which will secure the former, and yet avoid the latter."