BISHOP CLEARY AND THE BRADLAUUH-INGERBULL EDUCATIONAL IDEAL.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1675, 15 February 1913, Page 6

BISHOP CLEARY AND THE BRAD-LAUUH-INGERBULL EDUCATIONAL IDEAL.

Sir,—lt haa already been my unpleasant duty to reler repeatedly to tlio persistent misrepresentation ol Christian oxjponents. by. i>il>ie-in-scnools advocates, uf tins misrepresentation i have had my full snare; but it lias seldom taken a more offensive form tlian in tlio letter in tvliich Air. J. 11. Collier describes "me Koiuau Catholic Kisiiop of Auckland" us lecturing in tlio Wellington 'town llnll "in lavour of Uio ideal 01 Charles Drudlaugh and Colonel lugersoll—seeuiar education in tno sckoois." bomo oi your younger readers limy perhaps require to be reminded mat Bradiaugh and ingersoll were' thoroughgoiug atlieists, the latter oi a peculiarly aggressive type.Tlio context plainly shows •' that by "seeuiar education," the writer means tlio ' purely secular system of public instruction. I have looked earelully through my lecture in the Wellington Town Hail. It contains no mention whatever cither of JJradlaugh or o£ ingei'soli, or of any other athoist. I find one brief reference to the secular system of publio instruction—and that' is a statement of the Catholic dislike of it. Eleven thousand printed copies of that lecture have been distributed. X hereby offer a gold medal to any man or woman, girl, boy, or hobbledehoy in New Zealand who can find in that locturo so much as one phrase or sentence that can be legitimately interpreted as "m favour of" the llradlaugh--lngersoll secular system. X offer a further gold medal to any enterprising Columbus who can discover anything "in favour of" tho Uradlaugh-lngersoll educational ideal in tho thousands of pronouncements that I have made, on this matter—in editorial articles, books, discourses, published letters, etc.—during tho past 25 years. In my opposition to the scoular system, I am in cordial agreement with my friend tho .Archbishop of Sydney, and not (as Mr. Collier declaros) at loggerheads with him. Jfor a quarter uf a century I have boon in protest against tho secular system—putting into my protest not mere empty words, but- years of strenuous personal effort, and, full many a time, the last coin of joyous sacrifice. Surely, if any Christian body is electively "in favour of" the secular system, it is the Bible-in-schools denominations. Their direct votes created the sytlcui; their children have all along crowded tho 6ystein; in 37 years their only "protests" against tho system have been a lew spasmodic bouts of words,' words/ words—only that and nothing more. It ill becomes thorn, or any 'of them, to cast stones at tho only body in this Dominion who have nroved tho sincerity of their objection to the eecular system by tho crucial 1 test of 37 years of personal. and collective effort and self-sacrifice.

I have always been in favour of the Bible in tho schools; bnt I will ever strenuously resist that particular scheme of Biblc-in-schools which involves, violation of the following rights of conscience: Protestant; Catholic,' Jewish, 'and othor objectors to be compelled to pay for' (1) the exclusive State class-teaching, (2) the exclusive State establishment, and (3) tho exclusive State endowment of, a fpYm of "religious instruction" ond "general Religious teaching" at variance with their conscientious religious convictions; (4) the' great /body of conscientiously-objecting iteachers'to be faced with tho following iil-* ternativos: Proselytisin," hypocrisy, or dismissal! (5) the' legalised prosolytism of dissident teachers and children, ,as described in tho ; league pamphlets,, and by tho organising secretary before the Presbyterian Assembly;. (8); the deciding of questions of religion and conscience by a count' of voters' heads. • - Catholics regard the secular system as an evil. But thero are degrees in evil;' arid, much as wo detest the secular system, we regard as a still greater evil tho proposed violations of sacred rights of. conscionco.which God gave, and which no league and no.Gov-: crnmont have a moral right to take away. It is difficult to get nwayfrom tho suspicion that thi3, persistent. dinc-doilg "of. misrepresentation is part of an organised plan. I, have a lengthy account of such misrepresentation to settlo shortly with the league. ..Tho Catholic' Federation may soon be trusted to deal promptly and trenchantly with these deplorable tactics wherever they may appear.—l am, etc.. : . HEIS I EY ft. CLE ART, D.D., ■■'.■: Bishop of Auckland,