PUBLIC OPINION

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8346, 5 February 1913, Page 11

PUBLIC OPINION

SCHOLARSHIPS To the Editor “N.Z. Timas-’’ Sir,—Mr Lee’s resolution and the decision o£ the Education Board, in. effect, not to allow holders of scholarships to carry on tlieir education at Roman Catholic schools is deserving of serious consideration by the community. A great fuss was made, in wording the resolution, to avoid any apparent individualisation of Catholic scuools and colleges, and.it was a general motion; applying to sectarian schools generally, JNow, sir. Christ’s College, Canterbury, 'is just as much a sectarian school as St. Batrick’s College. Wellington. As to Wanganui College, it is surely sectarian too. It was originally founded by an endowment given by the natives of New Zealand to the Episcopalian Bishop of the time, and to-day its influence is towards the Church of England. Thus, sir, in spite of Mr Lee’s care to excise any reference to the Catholic Church, by instancing other sectarian colleges where scholarship students could attend, he distinctly showed his bias against one particular sect. This in a person who has been placed in high office by public. confidence is not right, it least common justice should be done to all. St. Patrick’s College turns out just as good citizens and as well-educated men as any other college, and there is absolutely no reason why a lad who has a Government scholarship should not complete his education there- if hie parents wish him to. It is not a question of what the Catholic Church has spent in education. They can spend all they can get, and so can the Presbyterians and the Buddhists if they like, and yet be entitled to no special consideration from, our Education Department. It is a question of common fairness. What rouses me, a strict covenanting Presbyterian, to protest, is that an injustice has been done by the Education Board under a pretence that it was following out a principle. I Tiopo the clear-headed, unbiassed, thinking people of this country will give some thought to the administration of our educational system, and the various influences which control it and its officers, We want, not a commission such as the late Premier appointed to skip over the country and hear a lot of-prat-tle, but rather an inquiry into tho value of our vaunted syllabus for the production of good citizens, and an inquiry into the methods adopted in appointing teachers, the influence which the inspectors have in their recommendations to tho board, and tho heed which the board pays to tho reports, about juniors, of unscrupulous or jealous headmasters. With the bickering and narrowness, and the unkindness and bitterness engendered by the littleness of man yof those who have power to show what pigmies they are, it has sometimes seemed to me that our whole educational system is wrong, that its foundation is wrong, and the whole superstructure, however excellently and faithfully built, is tottering to a fall.—l am, etc., F. W. MACKENZIE. “ MORE REFORM ” To the Editor "N.Z. Times.’ Sir, —Tho “cable” says the Hon. James Allen has offered the Imperial Government 8000 of our boys as bullet stoppers on foreign service. Could' you tell me what section, of the Defence Act allows a “Reformer” who is on a money borrowing expedition to offer as a kind of collateral security the lives of 8000 of our boys to defend the money bags of tho Israelites’ “Reform." They are looking for population, and then offer the services of our young iNew Zealand army as a sacrifice and security for loan money. What has Mr Massey to say? Who consulted the country? Who asked the mothers of New Zealand to allow their boys to fight other people’s battles? Mr Allen glihly offers the workers (every time the workers) in the front ranks. We have not forgot tho Boer war when the fat “Reformer” sang Rule Britannia and sooled our boys under twenty-one on, how they went away with drums beating and flags flying and what heroes they were, and how they came back no longer heroes but, what was it they called them? —"wasters” and worse. Truly Mr Allen would; . ont-Herpd ’ .ilerpd jn offering tho innocents for slaughter. Sir, by whose authority is our citizen army to be handed over for foreign service; why if the Liberal party had done such a thing, the squatters’ organ would have been full of startling headlines calling on Ward and Co. to resign forthwith. X suppose it is what the Reform party calls another square deal to labour. Workers, remember yon are asked to find 8000 of your boys, not to fight for tho betterment of mankind, but to assist the “Reform”; party to float a loan. Trusting you will deal with this question in your columns with the gloves oft.—l am, etc., LIBERAL. Stratford, February 3rd.