OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2635, 28 July 1871, Page 2

OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.

MEETING OF CATHOLICS AT ST. JOSEPH’S CHURCH. A crowded meeting of Roman Catholics was held at St. Joseph’s Church last evening, according to announcement. “ for the purpose of considering their position in reference to public education, and of devising such means as may appear best calculated to obtain justice from Government.” The Right Rev. Bishop Moran was called to the chair, and explained that the urgency of the case demanded that he should call the meeting for that evening. He could not have waited until next Sunday to have spoken of the matter in the usual way, as by doing so he would have lost much valuable time It would be necessary for them to take action for the meeting of the 'Colonial Parliament, which took place in the middle of next month. It would also be necessary to adopt petitions to the Assembly, if they hoped to obtain any aid towards the support of their schools. There was • another reason why immediate action should be taken. Ho saw that their enemies were not idle, as would be seen from an extract from a letter which he would read : My Lord, —I beg respectfully to call your attention to the fact of a petition to the General Assembly, praying for a continuance in Otago of the existing Education Laws, having been received by our local school committee. accompanied by a circular, signed by J. L. Gillies, urging immediate action iu obtaining signatures to the said petition, and more p irticularly asking the committee to obtain the testimony of Catholics having children attending the school, that they had no fault to fiml until directed by their authorities to withdraw their children from the national schools. Our local committee decided not to take any active part in the matter, and to return the petition form to Mr Gillies. From what I know of the feelings of some of our non Catholic neighbors, I think many signatures might be obtained to a petition, praying for an accomplishment of your desires. It was therefore absolutely necessary for him to lose no time, because their enemies were quite alive and wide-awake, and they had lost no time in sleeping over the question. Anticipating some action would be taken by the Catholics and their friends in the Assembly, they had sent round this petition for the purpose of trying to entrap Catholics into seemingly acnuiescing in the present e lucational system. The object was to place the people and himself in antagonism with one another. It was quite possible some people might have signed these documents not knowing what they contained ; but he (Dr Moran) knew the real feeling of Catholics throughout the entire Province, and he could say they were unanimously opposed to the present educational system As therefore the enemies of justice to Catholics had lost no time, they (the Catholics) should lose no time in trying to meet them hand to hand and foot to foot. The object he had iu view in calling them together was for them to consider their present 2iosition and their future action It was absolutely necessary for him to give a short history of what had occurred recently in reference to the subject. In the first place, Catholics had withdrawn their children from the Government chools ; and in the next, they had established schools of their own, which were entirely supported by themselves. V.ry numerously signed petitions had been presented to the Provincial Council, asking for aid for the support of their schools, and this bad been refused. He might mention that he found extreme difficulty in getting the petitions presented. Some of the members for Dunedin in the Council acted very badly. One of them actually refused to present their petition. Whether he approved of it or not, he was bound to have presented it; but he cared so little for his obligations towards his own constituents that he positively refused to present one of the petitions. Another made a sort of a promise to present the petition, but some how or other he never did so. Perhaps ,he himself would be able to explain why. Then a Committee was appointed to enquire in reference to the petitions, and it had reported unfavourably, and the consequence was that Catholics had received no aid from the Council, and were in the same position as they were before the Council met. There Avas another matter Avhich he Avished to place before the meeting. He found that it Avas attempted to be shown in a recent i-;sue of the OUujj Daily Times that until he came here the Catholic body Avere quite content Avith the present educational system. Sometimes it was stated that he had been the cause of this opposition ; and sometimes the same thing was insinuated. In the Daily Times of last Wednesday he found the following :—“ Catholics have shared in the advantages it—[the educational system]—affords - gladly and thankfully they have always appeared tp dp so. And until, somehoAv, they got to see Avith other eyes, and to yield, avc are disposed to think not altogether willingly, their simpler judgments to the stern dictum of authority, they acted harmoniously Avith their Protestant felloAV-colonists on school committees, aud in sending their children eo school.” It has been often said “that half-truth is the greatest falsehood and the present instance was a verification of that saying. No doubt some Catholics had sent their children to Government schools: and no doubt some

Catholics had been But neither of these fanlpfnor was a proof that the Catholics approved of the system. If Catholics;• in any instance had sent their children to’ .those schools, if was because it was a matter of sheer necessity ; they had no alternative ; they had no other schools to send their children to, and they sent them there under protest. 01 that there could be no doubt whatever. No doubt Catholics in a few instances had served on committees, but they had done so unwillingly—not because they approved ol the system, but to prevent what mischief they could, seeing they had no other schools. The Catholic body never approved of the system, one striking proof of which was afforded by the fact that wherever there bad been a resident priest, there was a Catholic school; an 1 that school had been supported under, considerable difficulties and expense by the pastor and his people, without having rec rived any aid whatever from any external source or from the Government. If Catholics .approved of the educational sys- ■ tern, as the quotation he had read said they did, • what could have induced them to support schools of their own, side by side, with the Government schools ? He thought a more striking and more powerful protest than this could not be well imagined. Even in the place where they were assembled a school was conducted for several years, until means were procured to build a schoolroom. There might have been half-a-dozen children frequenting the Government schools in Dunedin, but certainly not more. ■ Schools had been established at Lawrence and Invercargill; and wherevei there had been a resident priest, there had always been a Catholic school. That clearly proved that the Catholics were not satislied with the Government system, and that if they had had an alternative they would never have sent one of their children to those schools. Then again C itl.olics could speak for themselves. The Catholic body were largely represented there to-night, let them speak on behalf of themselves and of their co-i'rdigiouists — v loud applause)—and le them tell the public what they always thought of the Government system of education. He himself would say of that system that it was diametrically opposed to the system-the Catholic Church approved of, and one which no Catholic woul i willingly adopt. It was a system that supported schools of such a cha> acter that no Catholic, if there was any other school to which he could send his'chilIren, would send them to. The system which prevailed hire was essentially Presbyterian ; the Board was Presbyterian ; its teachers, as a body, were Presbyterians; and the school books taught Pr sbyterisnism. Besides, teachers were allowed to read and explain the Bible in the schools. The Catholic Church had always taught, and : acted upon her teaching, that in the educa tion of children the religions and secular portions of education should never be separated ; it necessarily followed that no Catholic could approve of any but a Catholic education. That being the case, it was clear no Catholic wou:d dream of sending his child to the Government schools. This was not a new principle,imported by him. It was the principle of Catholic faith, and it had been acted on for the last 1800 years. Such being the doctrine of the Catholic Church, and the Catholics from the first having had schools of their own, there w. s abundant evidence to prove the statement was not true that the Catholics had gladly and thankfully accepted this system. They never did anything of the sort. There was another passage in the article he had referred to which he would read. If was as follows “ It will no doubt e urg d that our Roman Catholic fellow-colonists are an exceptional case, and that the purely secular principle would not be atleoied by vot ng a subsidy- to their schools. This would speedily be discovered to be fallacious. There are others besides Catholics who see in education only a means to an end—above everything else, that of making good and submis sive churchmen This was, of course, stated as an evil and a crime—that the Catholics tried to teach their children to respect their clergy. But the moment people began to despise the clergy of any religion, they also began to despise the religion itself. The writer said the Catholics sought to be treated as. an exceptional case. So they did. They held that the granting of aid to them need not necessarily inteifere with the system. He might here remark that the principal reasoii advanced in favor of the system was that it was a secular syst.m. it was certainly not so, because it was entirely religion.and anti-Catholic; because the Bible was read and explained, ami the Shorter Gate chism taught in the schools. He did noi know how men could call it a secula system, when it was not, when it was a religious— essentially a Presbyterian—system And this, was advanced by others as a reason why it should be supported’ This was most extraordinary. He bad seen it state I in many .places, and many times . that all other denominations were satislied with the present system. If they were satisfied with it, let them have it. They had a system the} could accept—they said they wore satisfied why then should any man say that to treat the Catholics exceptionally would be to in terferc with the present system ? If, when aid is asked for the Cathloic schools, those who now pi’ofess to he satisfied with the present system come forward and say, “You must also grant us aid for our schools, ” their only object must be to prevent the Catholics obtaining aid, and to coerce them to send their children to schools they could not approve of. The only object must be to p event the Catholics obtaining aid, and compel them to send children to a place where they would never send them to—(applause). It was frequently urged that the Catholics should accept secular education. He would say for himself, personal!}', that he would rather accept the most bigoted system of education—the most Protestant and anti-Catholic system that could be devised—in preference to a secular system. He thought the greatest curse that could fall upon a community or nation wax a secular system of education. Dr Moran then went on to show at consideiable length the results of secular education on the Continent; that it was supported by secret societies, who were banded together for the destruction o: religion ; who not only repudiated Christian ity, but denied the existence of God. At the same time be would take the liberty of saying that a great many in England acted unwisely, in sympathising as they did with the Continental societies, necausc the p incipies of the English societies were not those af the societies he had spoken of. He would not say for a moment that the English societies were imbued with this anti-Christian spirit, when they sympathised with the men of the Continent

byv support and by aiding them withmoney q and they thus became responsa greater extent than they thought* for the propagation of what was the leading ideajwith these Continental Societies—viz., the destruction of Christianity. Reverting to the subject of secular education, bis Lordship wont on to say that it was a determination of the Catholic body everywhere never to send their children to secular schools, no matter what were the consequences. They had made sacrifices before to preserve their faith ; and they ought to be prepared to make them. They ought to preserve themselves from these kind of teachings, as would inevitably lead to the ruin and destruction of the State itself. With regard to their future action, he left it to the meeting to determine what course should be taken. He supposed it would be necessary to go to the Assembly with petitions. They w r cre engaged in an unequal contest, as they had the Government system in opposition to them. He thought he could speak a little more in detail upon the argument thak.had been frequently urged—that the system was an excellent one. Instead of being an excellent system, he did not think it a good one at all. In the first place it pretended too much—a great deal of it had come to soon; in the next it was too expensive, and the public did not get value f r their money. He had had experience in the teaching of children ; and of their own children who had been at the Government schools, he could tell them that not even one knew the tables or could conjugate the verb to be. He did-, not say...whose fault it : was—it might -be jbhat v of the scholars t hems jives; but such r ‘was the fact. He thought such aa- expensive system, which led to no better results than that, was not a good system. Besides, 7tlie system permitted the teaching of boys and girls together, which might be defended on the ground of necessity ; but with a system c sting LfliyiOO a year it was intolerable That was not the way to bring girls up ; it was the way to spoil them—to make them tomboys. Indeed, sune of them did not know how to behave themselves in the street, and in going through the street he had been insulted by boys. That might not be the fault of the system, but it also yvas a fact. A great deal had been said about the efforts made to give a high education, which was to teach Latin and French. He thought it was injudicious, under present circotrstances, to spend so much money when the public in many parts of the Province had not the means of getting ordinary education ; and he did not think it proper or wise to educate the middle classes in this way. ■Vfier detailing the efforts made in Ireland in ISIS 9 to give a lii'jh education, in tbe common schools, and the reasons which had induced the Comnvssioncr to report against it. his Lordship went on to deprecate the establishment of a boarding department in connection with the High School, which he condemned as an unjust interference with private schools—making, in fact, education a Government monopoly. Monopoly of any sort Was bad, lint Government was the worst of all. (Applause.) In conclusion he sated that lie would not have said so much as he hud, were it not for the argument so often used, that to give CathoTics aid would interfere with the present system. He did nos think it was an excellent system, but bn the contrary, thought it was not a good one, at the same time if other people wished it for themselves he had no objection, so long as they gave the Catholics what they entitled to —aid in the support of the education of their own cbi'dren (loud applause.) Mr Scan lax then moved the following resolution : —“ That a petition embodying tbe views of Roman Catholics on the subject of education, and in reference to public moneys set apart for the maintenance of public schools, be now drawn up, approved by this meeting, signed as generally as possible, and forwarded by the chairman to the two [louses of the Colonial Legislature. ” Mr M. G. Fleming seconded the 'resolution, which was carried unanimously. Dr O’DoNOfuurE moved :—“That the following form of petition he adopted, and that our Most Reverend Chairman be respectfully requested to take such measures as may seetfi to his Lordship best calculated to secure this our petition a favorable reception in Parliament, and that he be requested to proceed to Wellington, should it appear necessary, to advocate our claims at the bar of the House of Assembly.” The motion was seconded by Mr M. Murphy, an l carried unanimously. The following is the petition referred to:— “Petition of Roman Catholic inhabitants of Dunedin to the Speaker and House of Assembly, Wellington, humbly sheweth—“That your petitioners labor under disabilities in reference to the education of their children, owing to the system of public educati >n existing in the Province of Otago, “That your petitioners have been compelled for several years to provide schools for their own children at their own expense, whilst they have been obliged to contribute tbeir share of the public funds by which the system of public education is mainly supported, though deriving no advantage whatever tlicrcfiom. “ That your peti ioners cannot accept a sj stem of merely secular education, or any system in which secular is separated from religions education, or in which their children are unable to receive a Christian and Catholic education. “ That your petitioners regard all attempts to coerce them into sending their children to he educated in mixed schools, or schools in which the Holy Scriptures are read in the authorised version, and explained by the teachers, and in which the *Sh »rter Catechism,’ or any other catechism except their own, is taught, as tyranny and religious persecution, and an unwarrantable and unjust interference with their iua'ienable rights and liberties. “ That your petitioners cannot be satisfied w.tb any system of public education which does not recognise their right to receive their equitable share of the public money in aid of the secular instruction imparted in Roman Catholic schools. “That your petitioners therefore pray your honorable House to devise such measures as shall secure to Roman Catholic schools such aid from the public money devoted to eduction as justice and equity—tinrir relative numbers being considered—may demand.”