RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN SCHOOLS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 810, 10 February 1910, Page 3

RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN SCHOOLS.

NEW SOUTH WALES

SYSTEM

Sydney, February 8

Dr, Wright, the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, speaking at a prize distribution, referred to religions teaching in schools, and said the State had given the right to every Christian section in the country to send its own teachers to teach its own children. They should be thankful to the State for making that arrangement and so recognising a great principle. [Recent cablegrams have contained an attack by Cardinal Moran on Scripture lessons in the New South Wales schools, and a retort by the Minister for Education, Mr Hogue.] CARDINAL MORAN’S RECENT SPEECH Auckland, February 8. The controversy in New South ,/ales aud the attack made by Cardinal Moran ou the Minister for Education (Mr Hogue) ou the question of Scripture lessons in schools, and also in regard to State assistance to Catholic schools, is one which arouses very keen interests in all quarters, aud some interesting interviews ou the subject were obtained by a Star representative this morning.

A leading Roman Catholic authority, when interviewed on the subject, put the case plainly and lucidly from his point ot view. “The school system of New South Wales as in New Zealand is maintained by a tax upon the people,” he said. “Therefore, as the Catholics contribute their full quota of taxation to the Treasury, they have a right to say what manner of education shall be given to their children. No Catholic can conscientiously accept a purely secular system of instruction, for the reason that the years which their children spend in school practically constitutes the period in which the character is formed,* No amount of secular knowledge, such as reading, writing and arithmetic, aud other purely secular sciences (whilst perfectly right in their own sphere) will form the character or help us to keep the commands of God, uor are they an incentive to repress evil inchuatious. We lay more emphasis on the formation of character than upon purely secular knowledge, and therefore, the Catholic cahnot conscientiously accept a purely secular system of instruction or attend public schools _iu which Scripture lessons are read, thus turning them into something in the nature of Protestant Sunday schools. To do so would be antagonistic to Catholic principles. No Catholic parent can send his child to such schools, and, therefore, as the Catholics provide their own schools they demand some allowance from the Government to defray the expenses of their schools. They do not, in making this demand, ask for compensation for religious instruction imparted, but merely for the secular instruction which is given by them under Government supervision and inspection in New Zealaud. We have 12,000 children in Catholic schools, and taking the cost per head on a basis of ,£5, the Government is saved an expenditure ot something like ,£60,000 per year as a result of the Catholics running their own schools. In the Government State schools there are 141,091 children aud their instruction costs the country ,£740,000 per annum. When you thiuk of it, New Zealand’s increased naval subsidy of ,£60,000 only represents what the Government saves as a result of the Catholics maintaining their own schools.”

Referring to the denial by Cardinal Moran that the lesson books provided for instruction were the joint production of the Anglican and Catholic prelates (Archbishop Whateley and Bishop Murray), the geutlemau in question pointed out that Cardinal Moran’s knowledge of Bishop Murray in Ireland would enable him to speak authoritatively on what was the real truth ot the matter, and whether the lesson books in question ever had the imprimatur of Bishop Murray.