BISHOP MORAN AND EDUCATION

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 169, 4 May 1871, Page 5

BISHOP MORAN AND EDUCATION

(To the Editor.) Sir, — Your correspondent signing himself " Protestant " in last week's paper, says the above subject is of great importance, and he thinks it right that it should be ventilated in country as well as in town. For thia purpose he has brought a very large wind-bag to bear upon it, and has blown about an amount of dust and smoke Mirmgh to blind the eyes of others as it has done his own. His tinder-box hag fcak?n fite from the sparks

of the Roman candle of Bishop Moran which has lately been displayed throughout the province, and the firo now !>u n in_j within him has expanded his windbag, s;> that he has become a v >ry gr at personage — in his own estimati m. I i the eighteen sentences which make up his letter, the pronoun I appears seventeen times, and if his statements could be received with the same assurance with which they are given, there; would be no need for saying more about it.

lie tells us he presents a phase of the subject which ha-* not yet been touched upon, and certainly he has the merit of discovering a mare's nest which nobody else has yet seen. This is nothing else than that our very liberal system of education in Otago is " from beginning to end a denominational system," and " in almost every one of the Otago schools Presbyterianism is taught " As it is well known that in our schools the teachers have been drawn from all the various denominations, including the Koman Catholic Church, the Church of England and others, as well as the Presbyteri-ui ; that the school committees and the children attending the schools have also presented the same variety of religious denominations, this certainly was a phase of the subject never presented before, and it required a pair of Roman spectacles to mi it. Startled with the discovery, 1 ! read on, anxious to know more about it, and was nearly despairing of further light, when relief to my feelings was promised near the end of the letter in ths condescending announcement "one word more and I have done." If he had said he would be done for, he would have spoken the truth, for his one word tells us that " he does not mean to charge tha masters with any dereliction of duty iri actually teaching tho tenets of their faith," What then does he mean? Listen to his words : "I say that the very school books, the method of taaohing, the whole air and atmosphere of everything that is done, said, or written, is as Presbyterian as it is possible for it to be." Truly the Presbyterianism with which this writer's brain is afflicted, which suddenly transmogrifies every man, be he Roman Catholic or Presbyterian, who hecomes a teacher in Otago ; which infects his method of teaching ; which pollutes the whole air and atmosphere of evdrything about the school ; which affects the mode in vvliLli the c'liLli'un btwl put their letters, or sun. n;» iheirncC'Uiir-, <>r wr>te their copies, or «inj their tonio sxl-f.i, or roar out under the infliction of summary chastisement, s a thing so utterly astounding in the religious line that [ can only suppose it must be very lik? thit awful' disease called delirium tremens, which fills the poor drunkard with unutterable terrors of unclean beasts and evil spirits in everything about him. Fortunately, in the one case as in the othe", these j horrors are only in the brain of the unI hap]jy victim, and until fresh discoveries are made by those less afflicted with '-his new kind of disease, the public will no doubt rest content with the present system of education, which has been proved for twenty-three years to be so well suited to their wants and wishes.

This discoverer who has found such a wonderful peculiarity about the present system, has had no difficulty in devising another, which, he says, " will aff >rd an opportunity for securing realty first-class schoolmasters — an article rather sc-irce in Otago just now". This last remark, which is intended to throw contempt on the schoolmasters — a most respectable and praiseworthy body of public servants — will, no doubt, be estimated by them at its proper value. The man who is blown up with such pitiful egotism as this writer is, is not likely to discover merit in any except himself — ju3t as the mad man thought that he alone, of all the world, was in his senses. Supposing, however, that we wanted better men than we have at present, the plan of getting them which is sui'geßtad ii ortainly original, viz., having three schools instead of tne. If the present liberal allowance is continued (and there is little chance of its being increased, as the land revenue is always diminishing) each school W'tuVl only receive a third of the amount which is given at present, and if we cannot get first-class men now, it is quite absurd to expect them then. The usual way of the world has been to offer larger salaries in order to procure more accomplished men. This writer proposes to reverse that order— reduce the salaries to one- third of the present amount, get three times the number of teachers, and so secure that all of them shall be better qualified than those at present engaged. Reasoning with such a triflsr would be lost. The public will probably find more sensible guides.

If this denominational system were introduced, instead of three schools we should require many more. This correspondent says, "we shall find certain denominations which are near akin (Presbyterians and Methodists et hoc genus omne) clubbing together for one school. The Church of England would doubtless have another, and the Church of .Rome a third." His knowledge of denominations appears to be equal to the sense which he displays in the way he proposes to get first-class teachers. If denominations that were near akin were to club together, the Methodists should certainly have more affinity to the Church of England than the Presbyterian, so far as their liking for the English prayer book is concerned, and their method of government in some places ; for perhaps it may not be known to this transcendental individual that the Methodists — whom he evidently despises nearly as much as he does the Presbyterians — have Bishops in their church in America, though they don't follow that silly aping of English dignitaries by calling them Lord Bishops. As to the denomination which he means by et hoc genus omne, it is a pity that he did not say in plain English who they are. He should keep in mind that everybody has not been brought up to the use of stran^o tqu^ueK as he wants us to believe that he has. Judging from ths action of Methodists in other things, it seems moro than likely they would want a school for themselves, just like their big neighbors the Church of England ; and perh;ip3 some more would do the sam 9. Such a system, it is easy to see, would bring down the emolument and position of teachers to such a low pitch that we should soon find their places filled by insolvent debtors kept waitiner for their certificate, superannuated toll men, and others who had got no work to <3to. Such

a system, he says, would be satisfactory to all parties after a short trial. If any others can see it, they deserve credit for having a large amount of credulity. He ask*, " How wo ild those dissenters, who write against I )r. Mor.in's vLjws, like to send t'.ieir chilJiou to r>oh >ols of which he might have the spiritual oversight I" This is c vsily amwerod by saying that nobody excvpt Roman Catholics desire it; an'l fiit-cher, nobody desires Roman Catholic or any other ohiidren to get spiritual instruction in the present Government schools against the wish of their parents. They ein have the benefit of the instruction and full value for their money wiih» out reading the iHble, during the hour, or two in the week that miy be spent on it. But 1 would ask this writer what does he mean by diss nters ? Does he so desi?- r nate all who dissmit from Bishop Moran's church, or is it merely those who do. not a^ree with this correspondent's views on education. It can hardly be the former, else your correspondent would be included, for he says he doss not belong to Bishop Moran's persuasion. He must mean all who dissent from his own views. This is certainty a unique way of speaking about the world at lar^e, He evidently divides the whole miss of mankind into those who agree with his views, and those who are dissenters. It has been sometimes said that mai is the meant re of the universe, but it his been left for this gig.iutic individual to put this sentiment into actual practice. It is to be greatly desired that his tri-mds will take good cars of him, so thai; all the rest of the world may at anytime be abe to measure the c >iT3ctnes3 of their sentiments by comparing them with his. From the beginning to the end of his letter, it is clear that he is filled with that spirit towards the Presbyteriar.a which the fro;,' in the old fable cherish d towards the ox. He may envy the'r power and influence, but let him keep in mind the s.id end of the frog, which — in consequence of its unnatur.il greatness — burst. He speaks of them as having been " so unwise as to select this precious Golgotha for th >ir n : dus." What a pit/ that this individual had not been wiser, and selected some other place. Golgotha, as I used to hear at the Sabbath school, was the placa of a skull, and from the w-iy skulls came there, the brain that mig'it be in them was of no further use. It' this h his Golgotha, as he seems to inc'U it ig, it is much t<j hs* ue-urt! 1 that lie wijus t allow his s>kuli, \vit l i white v'er may be in it, to repose in a stati of qnie - cence suitable to iis melancholy situation. — 1 am, &c, Anothuk. Protkstant. (To the Editor ) Sir, — T see in your last is3ue a letter from our signing himself " Protestant," trying to stir up discord, not only between Protestants and Roman Catholics, but among Protestants themselves. By what perverseness of imagination his he discovered that to any large and respectable section of Protestants, Presbyterianism is as obnoxious as Rom-m Catholicism is to Presbyterianism ! Need I say the other Protestant sects look on Presbyterians as fellow Protestants holding the same fuu•UmeuUl truths, and diffarinjf only in outward forms. Is he intention illy blind to the f ict that of the Sve teachers who have charge of the four schools in this district, only two are Presbyterians ; the other three being, one a Oongregv. tionalist, one an episcopalian, and the other a Methodist \ and yet he calls the schools Piesbyterian. Heilly Presbyterianism must be a very s a nil* system, when it can be taught by Kpiscopalian, Methodist, and Roman Catholic school, masters. At present we have six school centres in this district. Now, if our five clergymen start a school each in each of these (and if we have denominational education, I cannot see on what principle the Government can give to one and refuse another), we will have thirty schools an«l schoolmasters doing the work of six or seven. If your correspondent (I doubt his Protestantism) has anything against any of the schoolmasters, m place of taking a mean thrust in the dark at the whole body, why does he not state his case to the school committee — but I am too fast ; perhnps he is one of the noble band of memorialists who, in the fierceness of their zeal agiinst a viccconde nniug teacher, have made even t!;o dead be first to sign their petition. I trust the day is far distant when our education system (adm:t edly the best in New Zealand} shall ba prostituted to teach the vile tr;:s'i taught under the name of Christianity, Judaism, Spiritualism, and every other ism that may choo°e to demand state aid— isms which the state has no right to teach, nor indeed to recognise. — I am, &c, Episcopalian,