SIR GEORGE GREY AND MR CURTIS’S BILL.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1716, 20 August 1879, Page 3

SIR GEORGE GREY AND MR CURTIS’S BILL.

To the Editor of the Globe, SlE,—With your liberty I will start from th« cold regions of the South. In the Ureas of the 13th instant is to be found the following telegram from the Bluff, under the heading “ Reuter’s Telegrams,” “ Sydney ; The Catholics are fairly up in arms aud meetings are being held all over the colony, and resolutions are passed to support no candidate at the elections who will not pledge himself to support tho Roman Catholic cause in regard to the education grant.” I must now take you to the hottest part of the North Island. Another telegram, from there, is as follows The ‘ Freeman’s Journal’ is a Roman Catholic journal, and in an article on the elections asks to sink altogether their claims on the education question at the present time, in order to return candidates pledged to support Sir George Grey, as, by pressing their claims, they might embarrass or weaken him, which the ‘Freeman’ considers would be a serious calamity to the colony.” Now, sir, it is very evident that the Roman Catholics believe iu Sir George Grey—l suppose because he was iu favour, and still is, of Curtis’s Educational Bill. It must be patent to everybody, and I am of the same way of thinking, that there are two great powers in Wellington ; one of the great powers says to the other great power—- “ Yote for me with all your powers, and in both Islands, and I will endow your schools ; I will force Parliament to concede everything you wish for, although I am aware your Ohuroh is never satisfied ; you want to gain the power your Church has lost, and through me you shall have it.” The other great power says :—“ We will drown all other differences, and you, my Premier, shall be our platform all over Now Zealand j but you have powerful friends in Sydney ; you will certainly give onr cause there the benefit of that power, because we work under one groat head and yet must subdue the world, aye kings, queens, and constitutions.” Sir, 1 will not trouble you with any more of the ideas of those two great men at Wellington, but will come to a little quiet consideraon the matt-r of schools.

The public schools are not by any means what the Protestants would wish them to be, 'were it not for the sake of pleasing Roman Catholics and other denominations. History is excluded to a great extent, and the teaching of the Bible is excluded for the express pnr?ose of pleasing the Roman Catholics. Yes, may say, a thousand things are yielded for the sake of pleasing the Roman Catholics. Every sacrifice which is made is made for the sake of pleasing the smallest portion of the community, and everywhere, and at all times, the Roman Catholics are the bugbears and will not be satisfied. The falsehood of their wants lurks in the expression “to teach.” Certainly it is the right of the Church to teach the children. Certainly it is the right of the parents to teach their children; certainly it is the right of the State to teach the children; but these two in no way interfere with the right of the Church to teach also. It is the right of the parents to rule, but it is the right of the State to rule also. By all means let the parents teach ; by all means let the Church teach ; but let not these two deny that the State has its duty to teach also. The whole question is —Teach rchat ? In the public schools the State is not asking to teach m the departments which belong to the parents and the Church ; but it must insist that the part which properly belongs to itself ■hall be done by itself and no other. It is surely even-handed justice that, when the Parliament agrees that the schools shall be common, the utmost care be taken that in the common school, in the matter of secular education, the children be equal; and then in the matter of religious education the children be left absolutely in the care of their Churches ? Surely, sir, this must be a falsehood, that the Church is the only and best teacher. The history of the w orld gives the answer to this falsehood in the most terrible statistics. Suppose that the claim to teach be understood to mean to teach children in schools reading, writing, and arithmetic, the question then is, how has the Church fulfilled its commission P The statistics tell us that when the Church had the most absolute control there were no schools for the common people. And in every country whore the Church had power, eighty or ninety per cent, of the people will be found in the most perfect ignorance, to whom a book is a sealed mysteiy. Such faithless stewards would indeed deserve to be dismissed with a bad character.

And again we cannot but admit that some schools teach the children to cringe before the face of their clergy. The public schools have a tendency to make the children selfreliant, honest, and open. And, in conclusion, It may not be out of place to give our Protestant friends and others this simple advice —Do not support Sir George Grey, nor any man that promises to support him, for, if you do, you support denominational education and grants of money to denominational schools, and if we do this thing it will bo a scandal which will be utterly to our discredit, if we put our neck under the foot of those men on the question of schools. If we yield to this we need never complain of any other tyranny which is yet in reserve, and which will speedily follow when the opportunity arrives.

Wo can then say, “My Lord, we are all thy servants ; nay, my Lord, be not angry with us, and smite ns not, for we are truly thine ass.”—Yours, &0., ARTIMAS.