First THIRTY YEARS OF SCHOOLS, &C. 313 
must adhere to the principle laid down in their report 
of preserving a separation between the funétions of 
the Schoolmaster and those of the clergyman ; but will 
require a certificate from every pupil of his receiving 
religious instruction from the Minister of his particular 
persuasion.’ 
In the report which the Commissioners sent back 
to the Governor they stated that their sole reason 
for prohibiting religious instru€tion was that they did 
not see how the Bible could be taught in undenomina- 
tional State Schools. After long delay an Education 
Bill on the lines of the Commissioners’ Report was 
read for the first time in the Combined Court in Oétober 
1852. At the same time twenty five Memorials, including 
letters from the Bishop, and the late Rev. J. KETLEY, were 
presented in opposition to the measure. The Inspec- 
tor of Schools had been his rounds by this time, and had 
become convinced that no system which excluded the 
Bible from the Public Schools would be acceptable to the 
people. The people associated their political freedom 
with the Bible, and entertained the idea that the attempt 
to keep the Bible out of the schools was in some way to 
undo the emancipation of 1838. Mr. DENNIS also 
reported that any attempt to tax the inhabitants for the 
maintenance of a purely secular system of education 
would be violently resisted. The bill was accordingly 
rejected. And the Commissioners were instruéted to 
prepare a measure in which religious instruction should 
find a place, and in which the schools hitherto under the 
management of the various religious bodies should be 
recognised and supported as such. It was not till Feb- 
ruary 1855, that a Bill entitled, “An Ordinance to define 
