The "Southland Times" of 10th July, 1880, in a Leading Article, Says :—

"The constitution of Britain and her Colonies is built on the Bible, and it has never been proposed formally to remove one stone of the foundation. To ask, therefore, that the school should recognize the Bible, was simply to ask that there should be consistency throughout the organizations that were the work of the State. There never had been absolute agreement on the part of members of the body politic in regard to its origin and authority, but in spite of this fact, the Bible had been nationally acknowledged in every branch of legislation. It cannot, therefore, be accepted as an argument for excluding that book from the Common Schools, that all are not agreed as to its claims and character. No argument on this score could be adduced against admission of the Bible to the schools that could not be adduced to overturn the foundations of British jurisprudence and government. If these arguments are correct, they form the best direct constitutional argument for an alteration of the Education Act, and the most conclusive answer to the bulk of objections urged against the use of the Bible in the schools. The evils of the present system are sufficiently patent. It discredits in the eyes of the children what is acknowledged by all Christendom to be the ultimate authority in morals. It deprives many of the only opportunity that can be made sure to them of becoming acquainted with the basis of the legislation of their country, legislation which they are expected to page 50 understand and obey. It leaves State teaching without the foundation on which all true education must rest. It withholds from the children much indispensable knowledge of history, and some of the finest specimens of English literature. These are grave indictments, and yet every one of them can be sustained. Beyond them as secular journalists we do not care to go. But it is fair to ask, simply in the interests of the moral and material welfare of the Colony, what harm has ever come of Bible teaching, and what else it is proposed to put in its place. It has been well tried, and wherever it has been tried, has built up the most flourishing nations on the earth. What country, &c.

"We believe that acceptance of the principle of Bible reading in the schools, and its enactment as an obligatory part of the statute, with a conscience clause, is what the country is quite ripe for, and would be the best course to pursue."