The Evening Star TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1872.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2793, 30 January 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1872.

The necessity for every man who values liberty of thought, speech, and action, to throw oft" apathy in the present aspect of the question of education, is made plain by the course adopted by the Rev. Dr Mohan. He has thrown down the gauntlet, taken a belligerent attitude, and with all due deference to him, one which in regard to his opponents will not bear the test of truth. He accuses the papers of Dunedin as having no respect for the clergy as men of education. In this he is not warranted by anything we have written. Had he said the papers of Dunedin have no respect for that spurious education which leads its possessors to assume the right to throw burdens upon men’s shoulders, that the religion they profess was intended to remove, he would have spoken the truth. Our wish is tynise battle of education must be fought in the schoolroom, we wish each of them to see, so far, eye to eye with him, as to co-operate with the people in making such arrangements as will separate the secular from the religious course of education. Our difference with Dr Moran is not merely with regard to ends ; we differ as to the means to be used. He wants the funds of the State to help him to spread the religion he professes. We hold that the State is a mere secular institution : that its functions are to secure to every man, no matter what his religion, the treest exeicise of it, and that if one farthing of the revenue is devoted to the propagation of any special form of belief, it is an injustice done to everyone who believes differently ; for it is appropriating some portion of his money to teaching doctrines he does not agree with. It will be thus evident that we place religion on a very different footing from Dr Moran. Viewed in the light in which he places it, it is a mere tool to bend the minds of children to submission to certain dogmas, which are assumed to be necessary to obedience to what he terms ( the “ Church.” But it must be observed that this term “ Church,” in the sense in which Dr Moran uses it, excludes all but one section of Christians. We wish religion to take a much nobler oWxd ilia.il iliio. Wc vvloli to oca ib looked upon as the voluntary expression of man’s love for and adoration of the perfections of God ■; not the trembling submission of superstition to the dictates of corporations, each called indifferently by different ecclesiastics “ the Church.” We wish to see men so imbued with the religious spirit as to feel it a degradation that one should seek to spread his own views at the expense of another,' We wish to see the clergy so animated by a desire to impart its soul purifying truths to children in forms suited to their capacities, as to induce them to come down from their pulpits into a purely theological school: that that school shall be removed from all secular associations, and that consequently the children shall be removed, wherever practicable, from the secular school-room to receive that instruction. The clergy in advocating the remission of any portion of this special branch of education to the schoolmaster, commit a mistake. That religion for which they claim so much is by that means placed on a level with grammar, geography, arithmetic, and mathematics —nay, is in fact made secondary to them ; for with characteristic timidity, wherever the Legislature has weakly yielded to pressure in allowing it to form part of the curriculum of the school, it has been thought necessary drawn, because it is clearly the duty of the State to secure for every member of it such an education as will enable him creditably and intelligently to perform the duties of citizenship. How, we have quite as much right to expect people to believe us when we state these to be our views as Dr Moran has to be believed when he quietly or energetically tells his hearers his own notions. It must be plain from this that we do not fail in according respect where respect is due. The office of clergyman is worthy of all honor : what we affirm is that its limits must be defined. It is not the man of education who is entitled to respect; it is he who makes a right use of it. The office of clergyman is entitled to reverence ; but if, forsaking his sacred duties the occupant becomes a firebrand in society, he devotes his influence to unworthy purposes, and must bear the condemnation consequent upon such a perversion of the use of the authority of position. Perhaps we ought not to press too hardly upon Dr Mokan. He told

his people, and in telling them he tells us, that; — The instruction of youth is tha battle wound of the present hour; the battle which the Church has to tight is not fought in the political arena —in the Legislature—but in the schoolroom This is why the Holy See has given the word —why the instruction has gone foith calling upon the teachers in the Church to look above all things to the instruction of youth. In what he was doin'', therefore, his Hock would not imagine for a°moment f at he had directed, or had the pow r er to direct —even if he had the will—the initiation of such a great contest as this. He was simply acting in obedience; was c rrying out the instructions of the Church ; h- was doing nothing of himself ; he would not dare to do anything.

We thank him for this information. We know now with whom we have to contend. We have a foreign element strutting to obtain dominion over the minds of the people, and to control the institutions of the Colony: an element that has proved of late years detrimental to the welfare of every state in which it has obtained influence : an element that is altogether uusuited to the spirit of our institutions. It is an agency that, however beneficial when first adopted, has not progressed with the advance of human learning. While including in its ranks men of the highest culture, it has sought to fetter the masses of mankind by placing a limit beyond which thought shall not soar. At the bidding of this hierarchy Dr. Moran and the Rev. Mr Coleman are seeking to fight the battle of education according to the Bishop’s own Avords—“ hand to hand, and foot to foot. We may be permitted to express regret that he is placed in so unenviable a position j but as he is not a free agent, we suppose he must do as ordered. He invites the clergy of Dunedin to unite with him to punish the profligate and disrespectful Press. His appeal nvill not be responded to. We may tell him, however, that avg at least have no other object than to secure to every citizen the utmost civil and religious liberty—and in the term <£ citizen Ave cordially include his oavu flock. We, therefore, freely accept his challenge, quite confident sooner or later in the result,