Petition of Otago Board. The Bible-in-Schools Association.

The following petition from the Council of the above Association has been forwarded to both Houses of the General Assembly :—

"1.	That your petitioners have been duly elected as Members of the Council of the Association known as 'The Bible-in-Schools Association.'
"2.	That your petitioners entertain a strong conviction that the exclusion of the Bible from the common schools of the Colony is fraught with consequences alike disastrous to society and to the cause of sound education.
"3.	That your petitioners do humbly submit, that, apart altogether from its religious teaching (which, however, your petitioners hold in the highest estimation) the Bible is recognised and acknowledged in every Christian country to be the best and most reliable text-book in the important departments of morals and of ancient Jewish History, the former of which subjects in particular cannot, in the opinion of your petitioners, be neglected or overlooked without evil consequences of a most serious character resulting.
"4.	That your petitioners, believing that the opposition to the reading of the Bible in the public schools was confined to but a small section of the community, addressed the following circular to the various School Committees throughout the Provincial District of Otago.—(Here follows the circular.)
"5.	That replies to the said circular were received from 47 Committees, of which number 42 were in favour of the reintroduction of the reading of the Bible, two were against, and three were indifferent or neutral.
"6.	That the following resolution, passed by the Dunedin School Committee, with only two dissentients, may be taken as a specimen of the replies received from the School Committees throughout the Provincial District of Otago:—'That the Dunedin School Committee cordially approve of the efforts of the Bible in Schools Associations to have the Bible reintroduced into our public schools, and will gladly co-operate with them in their efforts to attain so desirable an object.'
"7.	That at a meeting of the Education Board of the Provincial District of Otago, held on the 26th day of June, 1879, the following resolution was passed with only one dissentient:—' That page 52 in the opinion of this Board, it is very desirable that the Education Act be amended with the view of allowing the introduction of Bible reading in the public schools.'
"8.	That your petitioners are informed, and believe that the Education Board and School Committees of the Provincial District of Southland are equally strongly in favour of the introduction of Bible-reading in the schools, and they have no reason to doubt that the feeling is general throughout the Colony.
"9.	That your petitioners humbly submit that the School Committees and Education Boards, being elected directly by the people upon the education question alone, their opinions are entitled to great weight upon this important question, it being impossible to gather correctly the opinion of the electors of the Colony at a general election, owing to other political issues of an important character being decided by one vote.
"10.	That your petitioners, holding the conviction referred to, and believing the great majority of the School Committees and of the parents throughout the Colony desire to see the reading of the Bible reintroduced to the public schools, do humbly pray your honourable House to cause such amendments to be made in the Education Act as may provide for such reading being established by law, provided, if needs be, that any School Committee have power to prohibit such reading in any school district if a majority of its members so decide. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.

Report of Southland Board.

In the Education Report for 1880 (H.—IA.), presented to Parliament on the 5th June, 1880, by the Hon. the Minister for Education, the following paragraph appears on page 85, in the report of the Southland Education Board for the year ending 31st December, 1879—

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"The Bible-in-Schools.—This question was brought before the Board, at a meeting held on the 6th June, and, after considerable discussion, a motion was carried almost unanimously, declaring it to be the opinion of the Board that the Bible should be read daily in the puplic schools without comment. Copies of this motion were forwarded to the Government, and also to all the School Committees, accompanied in the latter case by a request that they should give an expression of their opinion on the subject. Of the 55 committees then existing, 37 expressed themselves in favour of the resolution, and 8 against it. The remaining 10 were either neutral or failed to make any return."

Letter of Ven. Archdeacon Maunsell.

Napier Bible-in-Schools Association.

To the Editor of the "New Zealand Herald."

Sir,—Although you are, I am aware, a strong advocate for the present law on school education, which prohibits any Bible reading or religious teaching during school hours, yet I am sure that you will allow those who think differently to make known their wishes and their plans through your columns. I take the liberty, therefore, to ask you to make known to your readers the accompanying "memo." of the proceedings of a society that has been organised in Napier for promoting the above object—the one, perhaps, to which you referred this morning. The only resource now left to those who wish to remove the present great blot from our school laws is to organise, and to take steps for ascertaining the views of parents on the subject; and I will frankly confess that my object in asking you to make this movement at Napier known, is to stir up those who have leisure and ability to take steps for organizing a similar movement in Auckland.—I am, &c., R. Maunsell.

"A meeting of the Bible-in-Schools Committee was held on June 27, in the Council Chamber. The Bishop of Waiapu was in the chair. The secretary, the Rev. J. Spear, read a statement of the result of the canvass for signatures to the Bible petition. In those districts where a canvass was made considerable support was obtained. The total number of signatures to date was 1400. Four instalments of the petition had already been forwarded to Wellington, and were duly presented to the House of Representatives by Sir William Fox and Captain Russell, and by the Hon. Mr. Menzies to the Legislative Council. He thought that the committee ought to resolve themselves into a Bible-in-Schools Association, so as to be on a more permanent footing, and to work with similar associations in other parts of the colony. This would enable them to agree upon a common plan of action, and to institute, if necessary, a general canvass of parents in New Zealand with the view of eliciting their opinion on the subject of Bible-reading in the State schools. He had no fear of the ultimate issue of such an appeal, believing it would result in an overwhelming majority declaring in favour of the proposed measure. Mr. Spear quoted from the recent speech of Sir William Fox before the House, to show that the parents were the proper persons to relegate the question to, and not the mere political theorist, or secularist, or theologian. The result of the late canvass of Napier showed that, in the vast majority of instances, parents, and especially those of the working classes, were extremely desirous that their children should be instructed in the Word of God in the public schools. If the present petition failed to bring about the desired result he would suggest that another be drafted for presentation at the next session of Parliament to be signed by parents only, and page 54 to indicate opposite the parents' names the number of children they represent. Such a petition should be signed simultaneously in all parts of the colony, and would represent probably at least 10,000 parents, with an aggregate of about 60,000 children, and if it did not influence the members of the House, it would at least influence the minds of the parents, at the approaching general election."