BISHOP MORAN’S PASTORAL.

Evening Star, Issue 3103, 29 January 1873, Page 2

BISHOP MORAN’S PASTORAL.

To the Editor . Sin, —Your leader of last evening is calculated to mislead a number of your readers After having given a short unimportant commentary on the first portion of the Pastoral, you come to where his Lordship refers to the conscience clause. You then state that you do not believe there is a school in Otago where any chastisement has been administered, for refusing to assist at Protestant prayers, i suppose that means that no chastisement has ever been given to Catholic children.' If so, I beg to state that you are laboring under a great mistake,' In schools in Uunedpi, previous to Dr Moran’s arrival, Catholic children were subjected to great abuse, and in some cases punished for not learning the Bifrle. The law says it has only to be read. I know of a number of cases in point But, Sir, the chief attack on Catholics and their ministers was tp be found in the reading lesson. After the children had read it, the teacher gave apt explanation of it, and he always seemed to ba much amused, and took groat delight in explaining the doctrine of the Eucharist, and on all occasions Catholic children were never ordered out of the room. Now, Sir, these are not cases to which Dr Moran refers : I do not believe he has ever heard of them. His are of much more recent occurrence, and I have no doubt but that his Lordship will be able to sustain his moral integrity, notwithstanding your strictures, and much to your surprise. You also give a word of advice to your I’oman Catholic fellow-colonists with regard to the Victorian Education Bill. You are misleading them there also. The Roman Catholic schools of Victoria are placed m der Government control for 12 months only, and why not, I should like to know? They are conducted on precisely the same footing as before, only they Have to give free education to their scholars, and the State endows them for that. That is purely Denominationalism. If that is the system they intend to introduce Jjere, the sooner it is done the better it will be for your Roman Catholic fellow-colonists : that is if it is permanent, which will not the case in Victoria, fpr as soon the twelve months expire they will be placed under the control of the Christian Brothers and Sisters of Mercy. In concluding, Mr Editor, I have only to state that 1 have no ill-will against the teachers thao I refer to, but when a public newspaper comes forward, and denies (apparently with foundation) facts, I think it is time that I should interfere, for I am One Who Knows.

Dunedin, January 29tb, 1873. [We insert the letter of our correspondent because it expresses the style of argument that seems to satisfy a class. The Lenten Pastoral referred to recent cases of punishment, and to recent oases, only, did our remarks refer. Nor have we misrepresented the action of the Roman Catholics in Victoria regarding their schools, if statistical returns are to be relied on. Our correspondent asks why should they not be placed under State control? We know many reasons why they should, and none worthy of the name of reason why they should not ; but for our correspondent to term the purely secular system prescribed by law in Victoria, “ Denominationalism” lays him open to the charge either of ignorance or of wilful perversion. Further, we think if what is stated above be true, “ One •who knows” ought, as a duty, to have communicated with the Education Board that the charges he has made so unscrupulously might be investigated. — Ed. E. S.]