Another Education Squabble.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 172, 25 February 1873, Page 6

Another Education Squabble.

In another page we publish some extracts from Biahop Moran's Lenten Pastoral. The statement contained therein regarding the infliction of chastisement on Catholic boys for refusing to read the Bible in Protestant Schools has occasioned a long correspondence between Mr Hislop, the Inspector of Schools, and Father Coleman, the Bishop's chaplain ; and one result of this correspondence has been the appointment of Mr J. P. Maitland, 11. M., to investigate the matter. The letters are published entire in the Dunedin papers. It seems that some days before the issue of the Pastoral, the Bishop and Father Coleman called on Mr Hislop, and mentioned an occurrence of which they had been been made cognisant, and which was to the following e fleet: — "A boy, the son of Catholic parents, was a pupil of the Tokomairiro Grammar School. One day he was chastised or threatened with chastisement by the head master, the allege'! reas >n being that the boy was too late hi presenting himself at school. The under master remonstrated, and urged that the boy was a Catholic. The head master, in reply, exclaimed, ' 1 don't care for that,' and proceeded with the eastigation, notwithstanding liis assistant's remonstrance." Such an occurrence as this, if it had taken place, was in direct violation of an order recently issued by the Education Board to the teachers throughout the Province ; and ought therefore to have been at once reported to the Board and subjected to enquiry. But neither the Bishop nor his chaplain were prepared to uphold the charge ; they had no evidence whatever upon the subject, and could gather none even from the parents. Therefore Mr Hislop says he treated the communication as a sort of confidential and unofficial one, of which he coidd not, and did not, take notice : and this the more so, from the fact that Father Coleman declared, if he had any means of proving his statement, he would at once himself lay it before the Superintendent. The publication of the statement in the Pastoral, however, has advanced the confidential communication to the standing of a public complaint, -and as such Mr Hislop has felt himself bound to report it in the proper quarter,—namely, to the Education Board. At the same time, he wrote to Father Coleman, submitting the version of the Tokomairiro story as it remained in his memory, and asking for its confirmation or further particulars. The Rev. Father, in his reply, added nothing, and omitted all reference to the assistant's interference. In his report, Mr Hislop suggested that the Board should cause an investigation to be made "by some trustworthy person or persons not connected with the Education Board or the Tokomairiro School." This was surely a fair suggestion ; and the Board carried it out, doubtless thinking such a plan calculated to afford satisfaction to both the Catholic complainants and the Tokomairiro defendant, as well as to themselves, —the judging Board. But the Tokomairiro School Committee are indignant that they were not thought the best qualified to investigate the affair ; and the editor of the Bruce Herald,—one of the committee, by the way,—grumbles at the Board to the extent of a couple of columns. The reason of the grumbling appears to be that the Board and the Government are one and the same ; no good thing can come out of Nazareth, and the Tolmie-Turnbull Bastings Executive can do nothing to please the Bruce Herald. "In the meantime," says the Herald further, "it is satisfactory to find that Mr Boss [the teacher] denies any knowledge of the ground of complaint, and that the assistant referred to by Father Coleman has no recollection of anything of the kind, as stated, having occurred." The doubt originally expressed by the Bishop and his chaplain as to the truth of the matter aid the belief that the complaint will prove unfounded. It is to be hoped that Mr Maitland's report will clinch that belief. Enough ill blood has been raised over this Education question, and anything that tends to foment it is deeply to be regretted.