The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, JULY 13, 1889. PRIVATE SCHOOLS’ BILL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1916, 13 July 1889, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, JULY 13, 1889. PRIVATE SCHOOLS’ BILL.

The Bill brought in by Mr Tincent Pyke to give a grant to private schools has been thrown out by 37 votes to 25 votes, the other 33 members having skulked away into Bellamy’s sooner than bear the odium of voting one way or the other. We have respect for the 62 members who voted, but none for the 33 who skulked away. There is nothing which a member of Parliament can be guilty of meaner than to shirk his responsibilities, and try wriggle out of them by absenting himself on occasions when questions on which people feel intensely are before the House, The members who absented themselves were guilty of a cowardly dereliction of duty, and deserve the condemnation of their constituents for it. The aim of this Bill of course was to give Catholics a grant for, their schools. They are supporting schools of their own in every centre of population. They are thus saving the revenue between £BO,OOO and £IOO,OOO a year, and the object of the Bill was to give them some assistance for their schools. This question has been agitated for the last 12 years, and during all the time its prospects have been going from bad to worse. Bill after Bill has been introduced, Eoyal Commissions appointed, bishops and Church dignities examined as witnesses, report after report published, and speech after speech delivered on the subject, and now, after all, only 25 members out of a House of 95 are in favor of it. Last year Mr Pyke introduced a measure dealing exclusively with Catholic schools, by proposing to give them a capitation grant equal to about half what is given to the public schools. He was met with the cry that this was unfair, and that other denominations ought to have been included. This year he has included all denominations, and has met with no better success. This ought to satisfy Catholics that it is absolutely useless for them to expect any concessions on this point. There are only two courses left for them to follow now, viz., shut up their own schools and send their children to the public schools, or give up all hopes of getting any grant from Government. If they were to shut up their own schools, the result would be that the present school accommodation would be found insufficient, and the education grant would have to be increased to a sum equal to about half the amount realised by the property tax. In order to pay this the property tax would have to be increased by another halfpenny in the £, and if that had to be done the payers of the tax would very soon realise how much the Catholics were relieving them of taxation by erecting and supporting schools of their own. . By adopting this course the, Catholics could very soon break the back of the Education Act, because the cost of education would become so enormous that the people could not stand it. We know, however, that this is the last thing Catholics would dream of doing. They feel that religious training is essentially necessary to the development of the moral faculties, and on no account would they follow, the course which we have mapped out for them. There is therefore nothing left for them to do except to carry on their schools as best;, they can and give up agitating for what they cannot get. After all, the disability under which they suffer is nothing worse than what their co-religionists have to bear in other countries at the present time. The tendency in all countries at the present time is to exclude religion from schools, and whatever the result may he we see no immediate prospect of a change. In this matter Catholics have an advantage over other sects, for which they ought to feel thankful. Such is the devotion and self-sacrifice which their religion inspires, that there are always men and women of culture and refinement ready to shut themselves away from the world, and devote their lives to the teaching of the young. These look for no earthly reward; they are satisfied with the little they eat and wear, and consequently Catholics can carry on schools where it would be Impossible for them to do so if they had to pay high salaries. Our advice to them therefore is to feel thankful that they have such advantages, and to cease henceforward their agitation on this subject. They can do no good by agitating. Experience has shown that the Very fact of a candidate favoring this question is sufficient to keep him out of Parliament. Why, therefore, should they continue to keep very often their best friends and the best public men out of Parliament when they must know that to do so cannot forward the object they have in view ? they have other interests to look after in common with their fellow colonists, and it is a mistake for them to sacrifice all in pursuit of an unobtainable end. After all we believe that it is just as well for Catholics that this Bill did not pass. From various parts of the colony petitions were forwarded last year to Parliament praving that no assistance should be given to Catholics. If the assistance were given in defiance of these petitions we feel certain the re-,

suit would be the awakening of a feeling of unpleasantness, from which Catholics would be glad to escape by paying for their schools. There is one class of members who have acted unfairly, and these are the members who favor Bible in schools. If they were in earnest and wished to, act fairly to all, they would support the grant to Catholics, and then they would get the Bible in schools. We think it a great pity that these two questions continue to demoralise politics, and nothing would give us greater pleasure than to see the political atmosphere clear of them. They are very mischievous, and often they send the wrong men into Parliament, and the sooner people give them up the better for themselves and the colony.