The Cromwell Argus, AND NORTHERN GOLD-FIELDS GAZETTE. CROMWELL: TUESDAY, MAR 5, 1872.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 121, 5 March 1872, Page 4

The Cromwell Argus, AND NORTHERN GOLD-FIELDS GAZETTE. CROMWELL: TUESDAY, MAR 5, 1872.

i It is gratilyvng to note that stops have at I length been taken in Dunedin by some of; I the leading citizens to counteract the bane- [ j ful influence and checkmate the measuresj i of the Denominational party in the matter j \ of Education in this Colony. At a meeting held in Dunedin last Tuesday, and j j attended by a number of the most intelli-l | gent and influential citizens, the following resolutions were unanimously agreed to : 1. "That it is inexpedient, in any legisla-i tion for the purpose of the establishment! of a general system of education in the Colony, that there should be any provision \ for granting State support to denomina-i i tional schools." '2. " That an Association j be formed for the purpose of promoting a national system of education without aidi I being granted to denominational schools ;.; ■and that the gentlemen present be mem-] j bers of the said Association." A motion was also passed appointing a committee of those present to take the necessary steps! to give effect to the foregoing resolutions. : We cordially endorse the action which has j been taken, and earnestly hope that the j committee appointed will go into the mat- ' ter with earnestness of purpose, and with a determination not to allow the Colony to be committed to the disastrous evils of a denominational system of education, if by any means in its power it can assist in averting the threatened danger. We do not think this danger is immediate, for we | do not anticipate that at the next meeting ; of Assembly the measures which are being ! so actively and persistently advocated by the : Roman Catholic party will have any chance of being carried. But the wedge will be driven a stage farther in, and a further portion of the way paved which leads i towards the goal so eagerly sought to be attained by the denominational education ! party. We need but look at some of the : cities and counties of the United States, j and to read the articles published in the leading magazines and newspapers—artij cles breathing a spirit of alarm at the j established doniinancy of the Papal power, i and deploring the unhealthy turn which affairs have lately taken —to cause us to do our very utmost to prevent the like | evil from overwhelming our Colony in its 1 already too rapidly extending vortex. We do not like te write in antagonism to the interests of any portion of the people who ; constitute our population ; but when those i persons are banded together for the purj pose of initiating and systematically pushing forward measures calculated to create ; a serious obstacle to the prosperity of the j Colony, we should be wanting in our duty | to the State, and to the best interests of the large majority of our population, did | we not use our best endeavours to check ; their proceedings. We have a forcible j example of the pernicious effects of the denominational school system in the sad i plight to which New York and other cities i in the United States have been reduced ; and nothing we can say could more effectually give an idea of what New Zealand 1 might expect, were it introduced into the j Colony, than a few extracts from an article published in a recent number of Harpers ; Week///. Although this article has already [ been- published in the Province, the'great

majority of our subscribers are doubtless ■ unacquainted with it, and we make no apology for republishing a few extracts. After referring at some length to the corruption in New York caused by the donrinancy of the extreme Romish party, the writer goes on to say : "Yet had our priestly rulers spared our children, we might have exercised some patience. They might take our money did they leave us any hope for the new generation. There is—or I there was—no more cheering sight than one of our public schools, where a thousand children might often be seen, happy, hopeful, intelligent; i learning from careful teachers neatness, good j | order, and self-control, as well as grammar or j ! spelling, and, whether taken from the cellar or I the dram-shop, being swiftly transformed intode- \ I cency and morality. The public school was a ; i centre of light and progress in the least reputa- ' j ble quarters of the city. Nor has any expense I | or foresight been spared to make this part of our I I civic institution as perfect as we could devise, j j Nowhere are iiner school buildings, more costly i appliances, or the inventions of eminent educators | more zealously applied. Its common-school \ I system has done more for the well-being and | I good order of our city than all its courts and i |judges, police or prisons; for the welfare of; | every community rests upon the education of its , children. " But bitter is the hatred with which our I Catholic rulers have looked upon the public ! i school. Accustomed to control the ignorant ; \ masses of Ireland or of unreformed Italy and | Spain, fearful that their people, if educated, I would revolt from their tyranny, at least in i j political matters, the foreign priests and their j j American converts have for twenty years waged j | a ceaseless war against the cause of education, j Their papers teemed with denunciations ot the j | common school system. They demanded that j the method of instruction introduced by our i ancestors as the foundation of their free institu-! ; tutions, and rapidly advancing towards perfec- \ tion beneath the labours of eminent educators— j a Henry Barnard or a Horace Mann —should be i at once abandoned ; that denominational schools I should be established, in which might bo taught j at the public exoeuse, the politics of the Dark 1 Ages or the worship of Mary ; where republican i institutions might be denounced, the founda- i i tions of freedom sapped and undermined at i will ; where sect should be trained into hostility i ; against sect, and possibly a tone of morality in- ! culcated such as that which has now made the j civic government of New York a shame and a , reproach to freemen. "They pursued their assault with persistent au- | dacity. Their tirst pretext was that, by law, (Some passages from the Holy Scriptures were! I directed to be read each morning in the public i school. The more liberal Catholics never oh- | jected to so profitable a regulation ; but the | Jesuitical faction exclaimed against it as a fearful insult. They required that the Bible should be wholly disused in popular education ; that the principle of papal Koine should be adopte I by American educators. They even boldly violated ! the express law, and in several Catholic schools . the Bible has never been read Cor twenty years. .Next they complained of history,'—not certainly ■; without cause, tor history must be scarcely less ! palatable to the Jesuit than the Bi ile ; and so successful were they in their appeal that the ; grievance was redressed, and the study of his- | tory, it is stated by a teacher, has sunk to nothing in the New York schools. Text-books have been re-written ; truth often modified or suppressed ; yet still our foreign rulers were never content. With their growing strength they gained the control of the Board of Kdueatiou. That body, which had been made up of intelligent and honest citizens, was now composed, in great part, of the ignorant and often the vicious ; of disreputable men who had gained , influence in corrupt politics; of the least worthy section of the ruling party. The scho ds at once | began to decline. Teachers were sometimes appointed wholly unfit for their duties, and from their small salaries a considerable bribe was often exacted by their avaricious patrons. The | office of teacher was, in fact, put up for sale. The discipline of the schools grew imperfect ; . the Protestant teacher was often made to feel | the impertinences of his ignorant masters. "Triumphant and vigorous, the extreme fac- : j tion next resolved to create a rival system. 1 ■They established private schools in different -parts of the city; they boldly demanded that j they should be supported from the public funds. I Nothing could now resist the influence of the ! priests. The city officials hastened to serve their masters, and a law was passed by which a certain revenue was appropriated to the maintenance of private schools. The common school J system was, in fact, abandoned in principle ; and seminaries were established, wholly sectarian in character, where, at the expense of the city, children might be taught the doctrines of Loyola, or a blind obedience to a foreign Church. " And now came the final blow. The priests had determined to take the control of the common schools from the people, and place it in the hands of a body of men wholly under their in- ! iluence. if this were done, they modestly sug- ! gested, there would be an end of all controversy. In the Board of Education there were still seve- ■ ral honest men, elected by the people, who were - conscientious and resolute, who gave trouble, who must be put out of the wav. This could be accomplished only by abolishing the Board altogether. The winter of 1871 came, —the most j memorable for painful and disgraceful incidents II in the history of the city of New York. It was \ the culmination of the triumph of our priestly • ; rulers. A band of men, united at least in interest, ruled the citv, and even the State, with a 1 despotic power seldom equalled, who owed their :! ofliees to the priests. A new charter was created, . making that power almost perpetual. The , i wealth of the city was wasted in enormous salaries to judges, officials, and countless depen-dents.--the faithful servants of the Romish s! Church ; and every Catholic institution, from ■ the Protectory to the Foundling Asylum, re- _, joiced in its share of the plunder of the impoverished city. " In this turmoil of extravagance and corruption the Board of Education was swept awn*, j and its powers lodged in a new board of twelve ,! man .appointed by the Mayor. It is stated that ' '■ nearly all its members hold office under the - 1 city government.; that the people -have.lost nil control over the public schools ; that no one

can be appointed a teacher who is without jj fluence with the ruling faction ; that tfe Bible is being excluded from all the Oathol; schools ; that an effort is apparent in sever; wards to drive away the Protestant teachers" that in one school the children were found celt brating the Catholic feast of the Ascension that since 18b'9 there has been a steady decliu in the number of pupils, in the discipline an value of the schools. So faithful to its llornanis masters is the new board that it has exclude from its list of school-books most of the public-, tions of an eminent publishing house becaus their periodicals have spared neither the Pot, nor his New York vassals ; nor can it be doubte that the total ruin of our common school systeu must be the final result of the continuance of on present rulers in power." We do not say that ours is as yet a parallt case to the above, nor indeed could it btj come so under present circumstances, fo : the party against whom this writer i[ veighs are not sufficiently powerful to be come masters of the situation in New Zea land; but we do say that it points to wlia we may expect in a milder form, and w earnestly trust that we shall never see tl. day when the Colony shall number anion; its institutions a system of denominational schools, with all the attendant evils of tlia|l system. hi