The Evening Star. MONDAY, MAY 13, 1872.

Evening Star, Issue 2880, 13 May 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star. MONDAY, MAY 13, 1872.

The Most Reverend the Roman Catholic [Bishop of Dunedin opened the education controversy afresh last week, and Mr Macassey has given notice of two vaguely-worded motions in the Provincial Council, intended to give eflect to the Bishop’s notions. It is therefore time that clear ideas should be entertained on the present position of the education question, lest through a false move a principle should be adopted detrimental to the best interests of society. The following is the notice of motion given by Mr Macassey :

(1.) That this Council recognises the right of the Homan Catholic body to participate in the annual gr ml for educational purposes. (2.) That the Government be requested to bring in a Bill to amend the itilocation Ordinance, with the view of providing for the distribution among Homan Catholic schools of a just and fair proportion of the educational grant.

It will be seen that the first part of the resolution is a mere truism, and may be fairly conceded without in the slightest degree committing the House to the second. There never has been any denial of the right of our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects to participate in the annual educational grant. They pay taxes equally with all other classes, and therefore, if they are willing to accept their share on the same terms as other denominations, they are quite entitled to do so. But they are not content with this. They ask to have it on terms that are inconsistent with social and political equality and rights : they not only ask to have money from the"public purse to expend on education, but on an education that no State ought to recognise—an education based on a particular form of religion. And this is a charge against our system which the Bishop has not been slow to turn into a grievance, and to urge as a reason why his Church should do likewise. Our school books are pronounced heretical, and our Bible unreadable by Roman Catholic children ; and so we are gravely told, as if there was the slightest ground for such a claim, that as our system is not Roman Catholic, we must give to that Church its fair portion to help to teach children Roman Catholicism. Now if it be true that any portion of the educational grant—even one farthing of it—is appropriated to teaching a special religious doctrine under the sanction of the Government, we hold that either, wo must abandon such a practice, or the Roman Catholics will have fair grounds of complaint. If, on the other hand, the education provided by the State is purely secular, then, if all other sects accept it on those terms, the Roman Catholics have no reason to grumble, and, in asking special privileges, they are asking that which on every ground of social, religious, and political equality, should be refused. We cannot, for these reasons, coincide with Mr Macanprew in his advocacy of retaining Bible reading in schools. He on the one side, and Dr Moran on the other, have taken up positions that, if maintained, must perpetuate a feud which might very easily be ended by the expulsion of the religious element from day school instruction. That it is a sham is evident by what is passing immediately around us. Would it have been possible, if Christianity had been clearly understood by our population, to have witnessed that craving of thousands for spiritual light that has marked the monster gatherings to listen to the lectures of a priest of spiritualism 1 If our mode of teaching religious truth had been adapted to present requirements, would it have been possible for Hau-hauism to have commended itself to the supposed converted Maoris? We are only deceiving ourselves if we imagine our present system confers I'eligious education. There are certain men who think it very profound to say there is no such thing as secular education. W.e confess to having a doubt whether those who assert this are capable of judging, unless they mean it as a joke—a

play upon words. If they mean to say education would not be complete unless a child were instructed in theology and ethics, we at once concede the proposition. When we assert that the present system is a sham and a delusion so far as religious teaching is concerned, we must not be understood as desiring that no religious education shall be given. Our wish is to see it more perfect ; to take it out of hands paid for other work and to remit it to those who are paid for that work. Judging from many years’ experience in connection with this question, we believe we should be found correct, if i it we possible to ascertain the fact, when we say not one child in one hundred of eight or nine years old, could repeat, even in substance, Christ’s Sermon on the Mount; nor one in fifty, the Commandments as recorded in the books of Moses. It would be too much to ask them to explain their bearing upon human duty. The reason is not far to seek. We have plenty of machinery for religious education, but it is badly worked. The world has advanced, but the Churches have not adapted their systems to changed conditions; nor will they, until the fact is brought home to their pastors, that the school-master is not allowed to

encroach upon the work they have undertaken to do. We are quite aware that some courage is required to step out from the beaten path. The two sermons on a Sunday are part of the orthodox routine. That mode of instruction was instituted when books were scarce and few could read ; but is unsuited to a state of society where all are to a certain extent scholars. Something very much in advance of it is now needed, and until that is provided the Churches will not do their duty. It may not suit the notions of many who have grown up under the system, and grown gray while criticising Mr A’s style and Mr B’s theology : but their notions are fixed. If they have not picked up the truth, at their years, the probability is they never will, and the young in these days need the highest religious culture that can be given. To them then the chief attention of the minister should be devoted, but it must not be in the day school. It is their that they learn the use of language, the meanings of words, and it remains for the authorised religious teacher to lead them to apply their knowledge to the comprehension of spiritual truth. The Churches pay in the main handsomely for their religious instruction. Tens of thousands of pounds have been spent in Dunedin in church buildings :! thousands are annually spent in salaries to ministers. They are good men, anxious to do their duty, but they must get out of the old groove : the same theological training that they themselves have undergone should be imparted to the young. In all other branches of education, professors seek to give the highest culture : in this, the most important because it affects present morals and future prospects, the work is remitted to a schoolmasters who is not allowed to comment on the text book, or to a raw youth in a Sunday school, and yet we ai’e treated with no end of superstitious jargon about the advantage of Bible reading in schools.