SECULAR EDUCATION IN NEW SOUTH WALES

Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 118, 1 February 1879, Page 3

SECULAR EDUCATION IN NEW SOUTH WALES

(From the ‘Auckland Evening Star.’) Secular edncatii n lias found influential app v oval from a quarter whence it was least expi cfed. Most people are tolerably fa nn'iar wi (1 1 11 1 c argu n i c ll (s th atlia vi ■ bee n used against it. Chief aumugst tin se is the oft reiterated assertion that it is a godless system ; and that being such, it is nndesei viug the countenance of those who are entrusted with the cure of souls. In New South Wales a secular system of education lias been in operation for manv years past. When it was initiated it was condemned by the clergy of various denominations in no measured terms ; hut time, which ' l is the nurse and breeder of all good,” has worked

a great change in the public mind. At the recent meeting of the Church of England Synod of New South Wales, a debate took place on the subject of religious education, and the conviction generally expressed was that,lo quote (he ‘Sydney Morning Herald,’ “ the present Schools Act is a reasonable one, and any change that might be effected in its provision- would he more likely to be a change for the worse than for the better.” The Dean of Sydney spoke at considerable length upon the satisfactory working of the Act, and concluded by moving a resolution, which was adopted, urging clergymen to avail themselves of the clause which provides “ that a portion of each day, not less than an hour, may he set apart for the religious instruction of children of any one religious persuasion by the chrgyman of such persuasion.” During the discussion at the Synod, the clergymen who had availed themselves of the privilege of imparting religious instruction in the schools bore testimony to the fact that 'hey found uodTfieulty in the way of exercising fheir privileges under the Act But the most remarkable fact disclosed in the State reports on education in New South Wales is that comparatively few clergymen visit the schools, notwith - standing an intimation by the Council of Education (hat they wore willing to grant, not only an hour each dav, hut an hour and a half for separate religious teaching. The officii! returns showerl that ab..uf SO of the 400 public schools were visited by clergymen for the niir;-ose.s nnnn d and (lint out of JOO clergymen about 100 visited public schools. And more striking still is the fact that about. 80 of that 100 belonged to the C’liureli of England, the remainder being chiefly Fresln terians, Wesleyan s. Roman Catholics, the latter forming a comparatively small per centage of the whole.

The following account is published of file vaisii.Lr of two sunken ships in the on for roads of f! i e port o ( Montevideo, in tin 1 I,a Plata :—“ In 1871 the Workington, a full-rigged ship of 2<*oo tons, l-.den with coal, and on fire, was scuttled in the roads, and settled into soft mud, so that Ivt topsailyards were only visible above the water. She was bought hy a Frenchman. Ho at once secured all h<‘r top-hamper for staging on which to erect purchases (and did not strip h«r. as the Eurydice was .stripped) to discharge her cargo with, and work his divers’ pumps from Me had strong' pampero winds, and three or four-knot currents to contend against. However hy working both day and night, and in as had and exposed a position as though the ship had been oft* the Isle of Wight, he discharged all the cargo of coal, then commenced to fill the hold up with wine casks, which were stored below hy six divers. The casks had an inch hole bored in each head, then tided with water, and a long spigot placed in the holes, then slung in a chain lowered to the divers (the chains helping to sink the cask) and placd in position by (hem ; when (hero fhe\ had only to take out both plugs, insert the end of (he air nozzle into one hole and blow the water out hy the oilier, then plug them both up, when the cask won d be filled wilh air. Upon one calm day (hey thus phiced 250 casks. They stuck to the job for nine weeks, and brought the ship out of her bed in which she had set lied 3o feet. The united efforts of the casks had burst her upper deck, and so stranicd her deck beams that they had to he taken out and repaired. The ship, under the name of Par O-no, is now afloat, and has made many profitable voyages for ner owner. Now, the divers saiil they ex-penenced no difficulty while working in the holds from current or rough water, but were only troubled by the darkness and the slippery settlements left on all fooling by the sand deposits, of which the hold had at least 50 tons, and this had to he, lifted villi tin l iron hull of the ship, iron lowenu.ists, howsorit, lower raids, and all deck gear. The second case was a wooden b-’g cut down by a steamer ( o the water’s edge, which was Heated in a like manner, onlv (hat the immense hole in li<t side had to te planked and covered with canvas. She was snccces fully brought into harbor, although seven miles outside when she went, down, and in a channel whe?-e the whole force of the river is constantly running at four to four and a hall knots, and not three days without a blow more or less severe.”

It is a curious ami most uncomfortable anomaly that the language chosen to convoy eternal realities is the most unreal and J.ntatiis.-d lammnge (here is,— language in-which i( would m-v. r occur to us to adnress -i;i! «!■ love, or obtain (h.'.' mcessarr s or cxt-ti.nee, or do niiv of the real work of iic. Pulpit English is tlm most vicious English in eyistence. During the Irish famine the shifts the clergy were reduced to to avoid any indecorous mention of the potato in the pulpit were curious, though why a potato sin.old he more profane than the “hyssop on the wall’’ I cannot conceive, since the same God made them both. Same called it “the succulent esculent;” others alluded distantly to it as “that useful edible which forms so important a staph l of fond while only one Irish clergyman was found who, in a kind of Celtic reaction, courageously informed his congregation that their contributions had provided 30 starving families with “good Irish stoo.” The custom of a bribe with whom Mr Goldie’s party cairn in contact suggested to them the probable origin of the rumours that have been always current of a race of tailed men in some remote corner of the globe. f J hose natives wear artificial tails of such cunning construction as to entirely mislead a casual observer. They are entirely naked, except for the caudal ornament, which is a plait of grass fastened round their lions by a fine string, and depending behind to about a halfway down their legs. Possibly the missing link that has so baffled Darwin has only lately become extinct in New Guinea, and these descendants, ashamed of their degeneracy keep up the tradition of a noble ancestry, by simulating their distinguishing characteristic. —‘ Brisbane Courier.’