The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, December 13, 1910. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 930, 13 December 1910, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, December 13, 1910. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Nr:w South Wai.ks contemplates a reform that has been advocated on many occasions for some years. “ The Deserted Wives and Children’s Bill,” introduced fry the At-torney-General, provides that a man who is imprisoned for failing to maintain his wife and family shall be put to remunerative work and the proceeds devoted to the upkeep of those he is supposed to maintain. Under such an Act, the wife and family of a ne’er-do well and the public will be better off while the man is in gaol, for Ids wages and himself will be under very necessary control. There is a very large and constantly increasing army of men in New Zealand who make a point of avoiding their responsibilities, and it is hoped that the New South Wales Bill, whether it passes or not, will spur some New Zealand politician to push a similar reform. Justice at present is “ satisfied ” if it feeds and clothes and works a misdemeanant and leaves outside charity to support his family while he is in gaol. There is never any real guarantee that a waster who goes to gaol for avoiding his responsibilities will not avoid them with equal determination when he leaves prison, and it is obviously fairer to make him support his family while the State has control of him and his output. Among the overwhelming mass of legislation passed during the just-ended session such a Bill, repeatedly ad vocaled in New Zealand, might easily have been sandwiched in, and it is hoped, now that New South Wales has shown a disposition to effect a great reform, New Zealand might find time to consider a similar measure.

Si’KAiciNt: at Wellington on Sunda}-, Bishop Grimes referred to the position of Roman Catholics under our educational system. His Lordship said he recognised what the Dominion of New Zealand bad done in equipping schools and. colleges, but at the same time he would say that in this matter the Catholic Church had been cruelly treated in New Zealand. One of the last acts of the Legislature in what they called education involved cruel and unfair treatment ol the Catholics of New Zealand. Let those be blamed who deserve the blame. He would praise New Zealand for what it had done to spread knowledge and instruction even in remote and

sparsely populated places, such as some that he knew personally on the West Coast. He knew that the schools and colleges conducted under the Government were necessarily unsectarian, and if they were not so there would be fresh grievances. \’et Catholics were not satisfied, and could not be satisfied. They wanted their children to acquire knowledge of every kind, but especially to have a sound and solid Christian education. Thej r wanted to give them a Catholic education, which, in the true and full sense of the word, was the ennobling and perfecting of the faculties ol youth, so as to enable them to become worthy citizens of time and of eternity. They wished to guard them against dangers to faith and

morals. They were unwilling to have them breathe an atmosphere of agnosticism or downright infidelity. Science had been used as a mask for the materialistic tendencies of the age, and the links that bound religion and education together had been cruelly snapped. Wherever religion was cast aside and uubeliet allowed to prevail ruin and disruption must prevail.

Apparently his Tordship has a very poor opinion of our splendid national system of education —free, secular and compulsory—a system which every New Zealander should take the keenest pride in. A tree is judged by its fruit, and the fruit of our educational system as set forth in statistics clearly proved that our State-educated men and women, from a moral and scholastic point of view are second to none. It is the duty of the State to provide the secular training of the children and the Church the spiritual. While none will deny the self-sacrificing efforts of the Roman Catholics in maintaining their schools we believe it would be a dangerous policy for any Government in this country to attempt to interfere with our present system.