The Evening Star TUESDAY, MAY 23, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2578, 23 May 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, MAY 23, 1871.

Da. Moran is determined that there shall be no mistake as to his views, and has expressed the epinion that the educational system of Otago should be the worst of all systems, denominational He gives some very curious reasons for his idea—reasons which lead us to the exactly opposite conclusion. But Dr. Moran only holds the traditional ideas of the Church of which he is a member, and they are not by any means exclusively those of his sect. We hold different views. It is true ho denounces the press as atheistic, materialistic and so on, and many sections of the Protestant clergy are equally charitable towards our profession. This arises from the fact that our duty is to weigh the social claims of every section of the community ; to know no religious party when tlxo question of civil and religious liberty is concerned,

and to advocate equal rights for all, no matter what their religious creed. Dr. Moran asserts that education ought “ to be religious,” which we also say : but we altogether differ from him when he jumps to the conclusion that the day school is the place where that branch of education termed religion shall be taught. Let us for a moment consider what is necessary to build up that complex physical and mental being, a highly educated and accomplished man and as extreme instances usually illustrate a process better than general deselections, we will suppose the subject to be a scion of a European noble liouse. In his infancy he is under the charge of his nurse or nurses ; for as familiarity with different foreign languages is considered essential, it is not uncommon, especially in Russia, to have two or more foreign nurses who speak with the child in their own tongues. Next, his physical education has to be attended to ; and very early in life he must have his riding, dancing, fencing, drawing, and music masters. While subject to this quasi physical training, he has his tutors in literature, who instruct him in his mother tongue, and others who teach him writing, arithmetic, geometry, mathematics, classics, logic, and the physical sciences. Now to which of these several tutors in art and science is to be committed his religious instruction? Suppose the riding-master to have a first-rate seat, would he be the man ? or the dancing-master, would he? or the mathematician? or the professor of chemistry or physical science ? Each of them might be very clever in his profession but very heterodox in his religious opinions. The fact is, that each has contributed to furnishing the man with means to an end; and there is yet that top stone theology—or better still, practical religion, to be added, which not one is equal to supplying, and which it is out of their line of duty to supply. They are paid for teaching something else. Our Colonial youth must be satisfied with a concentration of all mental attainments in science or literature in our distinct schools in one man, and he is paid for communicating what he knows. It is plain, however, without reasoning about it, that to have education in perfection, division of mental labor is equally advantageous ns division of physical toil to perfection in manufactures: and we have the means of effecting this. If there were no machinery apart from the day school, available for communicating religious truth, there might be an excuse for denominationalism. But every sect has its own church and its own minister; and if parents are so ignorant of, or unequal to the duty of imparting religious knowledge as to go from home for help, it seems to us that it is one of the most obvious duties of the clergy of all denominations to establish theological classes in their churches when an hour’s daily instruction can be given to children of all ages. Such a plan would supersede the necessity for, and be far superior to, the elaborate discourses, the preparation of which occupies so much of their time, and which are so imperfectly remembered by those who listen to them. Taking into consideration the evidence of the last century of the utility of Sunday schools, it seems somewhat remarkable that no advance has been made in the system suggested by them. There is one other point in the consideration of this question, which seems to us to have been strangely and inconsistently overlooked by those of the clergy who strenuously advocate theological teaching in our day schools. Almost every sect of Christians assumes that there should be some spiritual authority or call, before men should be acknowledged as religious instructors. But denominationalists, in delegating this privilege to a schoolmaster, ask no such security for purity of doctrine or peculiar tenets. No matter what his own religious views are, if be is moral in his conduct, and learned in those branches of knowledge he is required to teach, he is very properly installed into his office. What we wish to point out especially is, that the training in the day school is only a means to an end. It is necessary to have clear and accurate conceptions of the meanings of words, otherwise no true knowledge is attainable. It is necessary to be able to write, or no one could record his ideas, or communicate with another at a distance. It is necessary to understand arithmetic and mathematics, or the business of life could not be carried on, nor would most of those splendid victories over physical nature which we daily witness be possible. It is necessary to be able to reason correctly on social and political science, otherwise, instead of liberty, we should lapse into anarchy or despotism. It is necessary to be acquainted with what has been done in the past, that advance may be made in the future. The training of the faculties involved in these attainments confers the power to comprehend the

highest theological truths, so far as subjects of faith can be understood by man. But no State can authorize the teaching of any special religious dogmas, without violating religious equality. On every ground, therefore, of utility, ns well as of social and religious equality, we feel it our duty to oppose the denominational system of instruction as being impolitic and unjust. If the clei'gy fulfil the duties of their profession, they will undertake that portion of the education of the young which falls within their sphere, and leave to the schoolmaster the drudgery of training them to comprehend what is said to them. By this plan alone, which is really what is meant by secular education,” all can receive the best instruction without offence to the conscience of anyone.