“ARTIMAS” AND THE CATHOLICS.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1731, 6 September 1879, Page 2

“ARTIMAS” AND THE CATHOLICS.

To the Editor of the Globe.

Sie, —A letter in your issue of the 28th ultimo appears over the novi dc plume of “ Artimas,” upon which, if you be good' enough to allow mo, 1 will make a few observations. A writer who could at the present day charge the Catholic Church with being an enemy to education must bo suffering from a mental amblyopia which prevents him from opening his ayes to the facts by which ha is surrounded. Is there any other denomination struggling as the Catholics are at the present time to educate their children, or is there any other denomination in the oolony who would,. for their conscience sates, tax themselves- so heavily to support thair own schools while they are obliged by the State to contribute towards the support of a system with which they have no sympathy ?■ I doubt it. Yet all this, and more, the Catholics are doing, while it must be admitted that in Yew Zealand at least they may be remembered amongst the poorest of the population. Your correspondent accuses the Churchy on being “political.” Well, when the State intermeddles with religion, it becomes the duly of the Church to interfere, and pronounce on the political questions of the day, by which she is more or less aSeoted, and I fail ko see how she can bo called a “ political ” Church for this. Where the morals of the people—where the future and the eternal welfare of her children are concerned, ehe interferes. She has ever done so, and ever will; all other questions of civil policy she leaves to tuoeft

"Who make it their study to contrive such laws as may be best suited to the requirements o£ the country, while she inculcates the duty of obeying them. Mr John Sheehan is quoted on Catholic education, which is about equal to quoting Father Ohiniqui on Catholic theology, and, like Mr John Sheehan, 11 Artimas seems proud of being an Iriihman, and then writes the following extraordinary sentence : —“lam in the habit of doing busines with a large number of my countrymen, and,of those who are fifty years of age, there is not one in fifty can write his own name.” “Artimas” does business with a very illiterate crowd. But I am half inclined 10 doubt his * e ‘ It is an ill bird that defiles its own nest” is an apophthegm that is not yet worn out, and will bear repeating. But does ho know the cause of this illiteracy of his countrymen? He must be very unsophisticated, and very ignorant of the history of the country if he do not. It is necessary to remind him that about fifty years ago, and for many a weary year before, there was no possible means of the Irish Catholic child obtaining even the most elementary education, unless at the school, at d that the majority of the people preferred to see their children grow up around them without the knowledge of letters rather than that they should sacrifice their faith. Does “Artimas” know anything about the “hedge schoolmaster” and the ' “ poor scholars ?”—two institutions, if I may call them so, that could only be kept alive by the most intense love of learning. The “hedge schoolmaster” was one who went round the country, in disguise, and at the risk of his life, to impart a sort of education, as best ho could, to the children of the peasantry, who gathered in the fields and under the hedges to hear him, while there was a watch kept from an eminence to give the signal to disperse if anyone was seen approaching. The “ poor scholar” was a man, who, in the guise of a beggar, of which there were many in the country, wont about with a wallet at his back, and some few books of elementary education concealed about his person, teaching children without either fee or ■ reward, save the hospitality that was accorded him by their parents. Nothing but the moat intense love of letters could make such institutions practicable in any country, ■ Even if, then, the statistics of “ Artimas” be

correct, and that forty-nine out of every fifty (for I suppose thie is what he means) of his countrymen are unable to write their own names, all I can say is that that fact redounds to their eternal glory, and to the shame of England, who, when bribery and persecution failed her, thus tried to subvert the faith of the people. I remember about forty years ago that there was a Protestant school in my native town where the children were supplied with boohs and writing materials gratis, and where the children of Catholic parents were supplied with a suit of new clothes every six months. iYes, every Catholic child attending that school had a new suit of clothes given to him for every six months’ attendance—and there were many such schools throughout the country at the time. Does “ Artimas” need to be told that when the Catholic Church held full and-undisputed sway in Ireland she was so famed for learning and her sanctity that she was called, by the unanimous voice of Europe, the Island of Saints ? Does he need to be told that it was an Irish monk who established the first school for letters in England, after whom the town of Malsbury, where ho opened it, is now called ? Does he need bo told that the future Kings of England were sent over to Ireland to be educated and to drink there at that deep pure fountain of of learning which was not to be found elsewhere ? Does he need to be told that King Alfred the Great drew his wisdom and his learning from an Irish monastery ? Finally, does ho need to be told this —that wherever the Catholic Church plants her standard education! flourishes, and schools and colleges and universities and seminaries grow up around her ? It was the maligned and calumniated Catholic Church who humanised and civilised and educated Europe, and often have her dearest children spilled their blood to Srotect and guard that book we all hold so ear, and to preserve and transmit to an ungrateful posterity the rich literature of the ancients.

Strange as it is, and incomprehensible, there are a great many men in Christchurch who are of “ Artimas’s” way of thinking. For these I will take the following quotation from a work on education published some years ago by Mr-Kay, a Scotch writer of pronounced anti-Catholio proclivities. Yet here is his testimony taken from it—second volume of his work “ Education,” says this writer, “is in reality not only not suppressed, but is encouraged by the Popish Church, and is a mighty instrument in her hands, and ably used. In many streets of Rome, for instance (he is writing of the times of Pope Pius IX, and before the dismemberment of the Papal States), there are, at short distances, public primary schools for the education of the lower and middle classes in the n .ighbourhood. Rome, with a population of 158,000 souls, has 372 public primary schools, with 482 teachers and 14,000 children attending them. Has Edinburgh so many schools for the education of those classes ? I doubt it. Berlin, with a population about double that of Rome, has 264 schools. Rome has also her University, with an average attendance of 600 students, and the Papal States, with a population of 250,000 contains seven Universities.l Prussia,with a population of 14,000,000, has but seven.

This is the testimony of a great Protestant writer, and I scarcely think that even “ Artimas ” will contradict it.

The following slipshod and bitterly false statement will make your Catholic readers smile, and your readers in general estimate at its proper value this tirade of “Artimas.” He writes :—“ From my intercourse with my Catholic friends, I am certain that the public schools are acceptable to them. Only their children would not get confirmed, or any other indulgence from the Church, of which there are a great many, if their parents allowed them to attend our State schools.” “ Artimas” is now out of his depth and floundering in a sea of unknown difficulties. Will it be necessary to inform your readers that Confirmation is not an indulgence but a sacrament ? and that the only indulgence which those children could get, or indeed would care about, would bo, perhaps, some extra pudding after dinner or a holiday from school. With reference to the statement that “ the public schools are acceptable to his friends,” I suppose there are they who cannot write their own names ; but of the Catholics of Christchurch I believe I have as good a knowledge as “ Artimas,” and I assure your readers he is entirely mismiataken. An incident has only lately occurred in the town of Mallow, in Ireland, which will I think dispose of his assertion. It appears that the Christian Brothers taught the Catholic schools in Mallow, but the clergy thought it better that those schools should bo given over to the National Board. They alleged, as

tloir reason for doing so, that the instruction ■would be equally good and that the people would no longer have to pay the teachers, who would receive the Government grant. Notwithstanding this, the people refused to send their children to the Government schools ; they clamoured to have the Brothers back, and actually rose in riot and wrecked the schools. They aver that they will have nothing short of a truly religious education for their children, and arc utterly opposed to their priests. As far as I know this matter is not yet settld between the priests and the people of Mallow, and it entirely disposes of the cant of the Irish Catholics, or any other Catholics being priest-ridden. Error, like wine, gains strength, and the aapacity for evil, as it grows o’d ; and so of these charges which wo are in the habit of hearing against the Catholic Church. They have been reiterated so often by Protestants that, not only are they themselves coming to believe them, but, unfortunately, a certain class of badly-informed Catholics are coming to believe them also. No, sir, the Catholic Church is, and ever has been, the deadly enemy of ignorance. An ignorant Catholic is usually a bad one ; moreover, who ever heard of an illiterate Protestant becoming a Catholic, or who ever heard of an educated Catholic becoming a Protestant ? Since the day that the blood of her first Pope ensanguined the highest ridge of the Janiculum, until now hat his 257th successor fills the chair ho then left vacant, the Church of Home has employed all the power of her vast resources for the dissemination of learning. Every groat educational establishment of the old world was founded and nurtured by her, but for 1800 years she has been singing in her office for vespers “ Initiwm sapiential timor Domini," and, acting on this wise maxim, he has ever united education with religion, which like twin sisters ever go hand in hand, luring us on, like a favourable wind, with a beauty that outshines all passion, to that supreme eternal happiness where all disputes will have an end. Tours, &0., CITIZEN.

The following letter appeared in this morning’s issue of the “ Press.”: THE HBATHCOTB ELECTION. TO THE BDITOB OF THE PRESS. Sib, —I was in hopes that the present election would pass over without allusions being made to private and personal defects or weaknesses. It seemed to mo that both sides had come to a tacit agreement to avoid this mode of damaging opponents, I regret to find, however, that the “ Lyttelton Times ” thinks fit to break through this rule by inserting in its correspondence columns attacks upon Mr Morgan. The stories said to have been related by Mr Morgan of his experiences at Valparaiso and other places, have really nothing to do with the merits of the candidates for the Heathcote, and appear only to be referred to for the purpose of throwing doubts upon Mr Morgan’s veracity. Now it appears to me to be a great mistake for any supporter of the Grey Government to raise a question of personal veracity. Mr Fisher should be especially careful not to rake up past transactions. Ho was elected on the most solemn assurances that he would fight to the last before ho would allow us to bo deprived of our land fund. I for one supported him because I then believed that, come what might, he would never forfeit his word. I little thought that, as soon as he got up to Wellington, he would take an active part in doing that which ho had most solemnly promised not to do. He had to do it because Sir George Grey told him to do it, and Sir Georgo Grey made him do it in order that he himself might gain credit with the people of Auckland. It would be much better that Canterbury should have no representative in the Ministry than one who is willing to act as the tool of Sir Georgo Grey in injuring us. There is no doubt that Mr Morgan’s story about Valparaiso is a very odd one. It may have been told in joke, or there may be some other explanation of it. At all events, it has nothing whatever to do with public affairs. It occurs to me, however, that it may be capped by some of Sir George Grey’s stories, which are a fair subject of comment because they do relate to public affairs. For instance, his assertion that her Majesty’s ships had orders to bombard Auckland because the Imperial Government wished to crush him for standing up for the rights of the people. Yours, &0., Faie Play.