The Evening Star MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2643, 7 August 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 1871.

Our discussions on education do not take practical form. In fact, we seem to rest satisfied that having done so much for ourselves in Otago, the rest df the Colony may settle for themselves

whatever system' they may choose to ( adopt. But we must not close our eyes to the fact that great efforts will be made to introduce a narrow denominational plan ; and we know from the discussion that has recently taken place, and the petitions that have been presented to the Provincial Council, there are many amongst ourselves ready to assist in such a retrograde movement. It is not therefore a mere shadow that we shall have to grapple with. We must prepare ourselves for an intelligent resistance to any innovations upon a system that has worked well and may be made to work better. The misfortune is that the clergy of certain denominations and the people are placed in antagonism to each other’ —a position at all times undesirable. We have no doubt of the result. Whenever such an opposition takes place, old and useless systems are swept away, and religious teaching in accordance with the necessities of the day is substituted. It would therefore be well pf the clergy could realise the disadvantageous position in which they place.’ themselves by adopting such petitions as one passed at a meeting of the Diocesan Synod of Canterbury, one clause of which was as follows : That your petitioners venture to address your honorable House on these matters, being deeply impressed with the necessity and value of religious instruction in public schools for the welfare of this country, and with the conviction that denominational schools, where they are subject to strict Government inspection, contribute to the general cause of education an amount of active voluntary zeal and practical experience of great value. Singularly enough, although Canterbury has done remarkably little for the cause of education, the clergy there contrive to exert enormous influence in the matter. It was mainly through the opposition of the Primate that at the proceedings of the University Council of New Zealand, resolutions were passed adveise to making Dunedin the seat of the New Zealand University. Yet, supposing his Lordship to speak with the weight that should attach to efforts in the cause of education, and that those efforts are to be estimated by the public sacrifices made to secure success, we find Otago setting aside 100,000 acres of land as an endowment for a University, while Canterbury, because it has reserved 19,000 acres for a High School, is gravely recommended by its Supeiindent not to set aside more than 1,000 to 1,500 in addition. We, perhaps, ought not to connect his Lordship with +UJo c+l’njry rlnlf* ; blit in VIP.W nf t.bft higher estimate set upon education in Otago, it would have been more reasonable to ask other colleges in New Zealand to affiliate themselves with the University of Otago than to ask our Council to become an affiliated college to some university, in nnhibus. We are glad to find that the claims of the clergy to interference in popular education do not pass unchallenged in Christchurch. There-is a very well-written article in the Lyttelton Times of the 2nd instant, suggested by the passage in the petition of the Synod which we have just quoted, in which the question What is religious instruction? is answered thus;— But we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that when “religious instruction” is spoken of and advocated, dogmatic sectarian teaching would be a fitter definition. It is the perpetuation of creeds, of some peculiar form of doctrine that is contended for, and for which the aid of the State is asked by those who support the denominational system. Take the discussion in the Synod on Monday evening as a fair sample of the arguments brought forward, and what do we rind ? The Archdeacon of Westland, by whom the discussion was raised, contended that if there were no “definite doctrinal teaching” in schools, the religious aspect of the people would bo of an unfavorable character. If, he said, a clergyman were only allowed to go into the school at a given hour, it would at once snap the bonds which ought to exist between him and the children attending the school. The Dean of Christchurch fully agreed with these remarks, saying j emphatically that there “must be definite doctrinal teaching in their schools.”j Further, the Bean took occasion to express his regret for having in somejdcgree favored the secular view of education, and pointed out that under the Government system there would be no guarantee as to the “ religious tenets” of the teachers. When, therefore, the clergy speak of “religious instruction” in schools, it is clear that they mean instruction in some particular form of religious belief. They wish, in fact, to keep the schools as a sort of adjunct to and nursery for the Church, In saying this wc by no means imply that they desire to use the schools as a means of proselytising,, but simply that their object is to preserve, as the Archdeacon said, the bond between the clergyman and the young members of his flock, and to make instruction in the distinctive doctrines of the Church the leading principle in the work of the schools. That, we think, is the only inference which can be drawn from the rmnrks made in the Synod. Anything approaching to such a system as this must be resolutely opposed. Every religious denomination, were it adopted, would have a right to a Government grant in proportion to its numbers; and as in Otago by the Census Returns there appear to be somewhere about one hundred and twenty different doctrines held by different sections of the people, the consequeuce that would result would be

the flittering away money in weak sectarian efforts that, concentrated in a national system, would prove an effectual means of giving sound popular education. The Lyttelton Times says :--- The census returns tell us that there are so many denominations in the Colony, each with its quota of adherents. If we admit' the application of the denominational principle for State aid to education, we must be prepared to subsidise every one of the denominations, and to have the country studded with double or treble the number of schools we require, with the positive certainty that the teachers, as a rule, will be very poorly paid. Nor is this all. What guarantee have we that the number of denominations will not increase ? None whatever. If we turn to America, we find that the tendency is in the direction of further division, and there is at least a possibility that the Church of England itself may shortly be split up into fragments. There are already three well defined parties, and the lines of divergence appear to be widening. This, however, opens up a question which we have no intention of dealing with. What we wished to ■ show was, that those who advocate State aid to schools conducted on purely denominational principles, ask in reality that the State should assist every denomination to maintain seminaries for the perpetuation of its own peculiar doctrines. They may say that th y have no such intention, but when we come to inquire strictly into the meaning of the language they use, and follow out the principles which they enunciate to their legitimate conclusion, we can arrive at .no other result.