The Lyttelton Times. Saturday, May 23.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 475, 23 May 1857, Page 6

The Lyttelton Times. Saturday, May 23.

KiGHTLY we conjectured that the subject of edue.itiqn would hot he discussed without considerate controversy, warm at lea^ if not acrimonious in tone.- As our object is only to open and enquire into the question so as to afford every, facility 'q ti^ pUlicMo judge j>eti7cen the general principles ofihe denominational and "•RV. C iilar" bv^pius we aroniMch obii^ed to ihos, corfeVponV . who have expressed t!ieir oi)iaioils tiu-ougn the columns of our journal. We are especially indited to our somewliat tiivtat.nai correspondent " Conndi (Jon- cil-• ior, ', whose long letter puts the view an-

tagonistic to, our,ow» in ft^jefMaM,prominent light. The subject. made* discussion is of too great importance to justly our dwelling at length upon the charges fiioti^ht against ourselves. We niay; say in passing that charges of tfisingenuousness,' sneering, :, &c, are as easily brought on one side as another, and that we regret th'a't,they have' been so rashly advanced, ■>; Connell Councillor V may make the most of the expression "National System," which in our hasty> notice of the 9th instant we applied' to the Government resolutions. It was inadvertently borrowed from the report of the sitting of the Council, where we presume it had been made use of owing to, the difficulty of saying what the Government resolutions were. But the argunieiijts in last week's paper werq directe.i.against the,principle of the so culled, secular, system, and we are very much mistaken if the, tone of last, Saturday's article justifies the assumption that the inaccurate use of an expression in a former issue was made to mislead the pubjic; do '■'pott' know whether the charge agaiubt the prppouriders of the denominational ststeii) of being''toe. apt to assume' to themselves ,t;hfi exclusive car^lbr the interests of religion,' be or be nofc in some cases just., .We take the opportunity for our own parts of repudiating such an absurd assumption ; such illiberal nonsense can only weaken any "argument; There are two sides to every question. If we fail to,convince our opponeiUs,' it is unnecessary to undervalue their . motives.,. Our duty we conceive is to express pur vie\vs as distinctly as-possible, even though we may not be so well 'acquainted with the.subjeet'. as our able eorrespon- ■ dent.. ■:;[; ;,. ■■ ■■■ „o, - .',/. „, . ■•-.. \.. ... The defenders and the opponents of tlie secular system sfart upon,totally dissimilar .premises,' It,,is/not likely therefore that they will dr^w nearer as the argument advances. Let us clearly understand however what weaie considering. Of course a stu-i - dent attending a lecture on the Medea, or the Binomial theorem, or the French Revolution/ does not "mistake either of them for a divinity lecture." We are talking now 6f .- the educktioii which the jState is bound to take care is offered to those who have no means of acquiringany other. We should conceive that what would ue most conducive to the interests of the SState itself, if we take no higher ground,would, be that higher education which is1 intelligible alike to the child and to the man, to the ignorant and to the wise. The duties of the State in cohwith education a Y e sp well pqt oy Mr. Jaqobs.m...a letter which we publish to day that %ye, will not enlarge up'o,n this por- . Uon; of the subject. .Our views have been very much misundt rstood by our correspondents when they assume that the specific teaching of theologies i. the great advance wh.qh we hope to obtain by the denomi.m, tioMsl system. Oa the contrary, we expecr .that a hrg e portion of the caildren who at ■ ' „t ended, schools based on :the secular' s v «~ ' teu, would receive very, little but a dry ' teaching of ,theology under the. plan of e ©t' ■ting .apart certain day* .for the specific-inl culeation of religious dogmas! The whole ! toiie of the''teaching is lowered.' The oral mstruciiou which ought/to form a "We portion of the liuuted educution received- by the ;najority of children is hardened'and dyx,d up .injo teaching of figures an<l alimabe^s; and clever children are encoura-g-4 to believe, that, so long as they can bW thur felloe at gelling, rea.liug. and cvp!.ering,/they are likely to become pattern members of ■ society. We cannot be too mindful oJ the trustfulness with which iv, norant^persons send their chiul. en v, school In aiding or eu« vl uF«gi Uff schools the State ■ "met remember that it. is looked up to by that class for whom it is interfering as a superior power, winch...**!,,.,, it dn PS i n ' ter iere, takes- all responsibility from thuse

assisted; and that in, , m nj cases the only education, reli K iuuij(' tfcatal. or Wc ,Xr jhicb a^hild, wiU revive, is that aflorded by a^^ance; 'Under rtekcS^** p;^,;^llo6^,;^^^ b e thed,^ of *£ S^te.Avhen .tacknbiyleH^tKe^iftieultv highest .tjutl W -^ni,^ 'toi' w -t 0; ft&g those bodies whose prof^d. duty it i mq«e SPp^ialLjr,; tp,.,Bup I >jy I ;ihe;I.!de^npy "ConneHGouneilkird' mm rtruiy/.'that we cannot return to the. tinie&^-fofcTure the Reformation^ wherr all Stiite teaching was tejxchih|' according ;tolifte" dogmas* bf the Church., . It is very trtie and.very "fortuii^e that,,religious .. tolejance ; ip nq^'fiie i a^o f the land., ,There w w ld b e fev^^^ed wh Q would wish, to retuin tp those times t o which he^ialiudes.; But Aveio natlsee the stqniturm onr corresporideiit's/fargiunent Other and various bodies how prui'es.s to standinthe place of the Church a* it exis ted'before the Kefprmaridh. "Their various and cpii^ictingciHims eniban-ass the'ques tioii as between ;thein the StatW, but as our correspondent.:^'.; to-day:, says, the difficulty, does ,not;do:away Avith the duty ■ We said on Saturday last thatwe-totiifi not understand the-ohjeots of.relig-ious d'enomi. nations unless they were schools for the education of; the people. By this of cotirse we meaiv primary ediication. And it is in this relation to" tlieir fellow men ttat any society, wljich professes itself to be. a'cuurch stands. on a very different footing '. with respect to .the. Sta'e from that on" which Btatid; insurance companies or rail way companies or any such associations for supplying human wants, i b The subject is so comprehensiye that we are ainiost tempted td'con'tiiiue the 'discussiou of it beyond due limjfs. Tiie restjaiiiT .however, which we pijt upon our correspou^ dents we must remember.ourselves.,