GrINX'S BABY IN OTAGO. (From Hie Evening Star.)

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 231, 4 July 1872, Page 6

GrINX'S BABY IN OTAGO. (From Hie Evening Star.)

' Little did the able biographer of Ginx's baby imagine that, after he had witnessed the deadly plunge over Vauxhall Bridge, and beheld the frothy coruscations of tbe black waters of the Thames, that the baby would, at the antipodes of Vauxhall, be resuscitated — be raised from the dead. Yet so it is. The Rev. Father Coleman has found a baby that the Protestants have determined to rob of its faith and to proselytise ; and the Provincial Council have actually had all the correspondence regarding this baby printed under the peculiar heading of "Correspondence relative to an alleged Violation of the Faith of Roman Catholic Children at the Industrial School." The capitals are not ours. We confess that, when we took up the correspondence, we expected to see a new phase of the Ginx baby fight. Briefly stated, the facts are as follow : — An orphan child, FTolt, aged five years, was sent to the Industrial School. His brother resides with a Mr M'Morran at Clyde, who is not a Catholic. Whether tho brother is or is not a Catholic does not appear. The consent of Bishop Moran to the removal of the child not being asked, the Rev. Father Coleman complains to his Honor the Superintendent. His Honor, after enquiries of the master of the Industrial School, replies to Mr Coleman that the child is sent to its brother, " who is a very deserving young man, earning good wages." This does not satisfy Father Coleman, who demands that the child be sent back to the Industrial School. In making this request Father Coleman does not hesitate to make me oE strong language. He says, "To me the whole affair, with all its surroundings, seems an organised system of proselytism. "

Stating the bare facts of the case is perhaps a sufficient answer to the complaint of Father Coleman, "by direction of the Bishop." This Otago Ginx baby will, however, show what difficulty has to be met by the Government in dealing with the Education Question. A little child is sent to the Industrial School : the only friend it has in the world is its brother, aged about 16 years. The brother is desirons to look after his little brother, and to have him removed from the Industrial School, where he may be associated with children imprisoned for crime. But keep him in the school cry the Roman Catholic clergy — there is no Roman Catholic church at Clyde, and Mr M'Morran being a Protestant, the child will learn nothing of Catholicity ! What Catholicity a child at five or even ten years of age can learn we confess we do not understand. One would fancy that when the child came to years of understanding, then would be the time to ply him with the creeds of the church or churches. It may be that the Catholic clergy look upon the safety of one soul or of the soul of this baby in the same light as does an eminent Catholic divine, Dr Newman, who says :— "The Church hold that it were better for sun and moon to drop from heaven, for the earth to fail, and for all the many millions who are upon it to die of starvation and in extremest agony, as far as temporal affliction goes, than that one soul, I will not say should be lost, but should commit one single venial sin. " Or as the same Reverend Father says in perhaps more forcible language, " The Church would rather save the soul of one single wild bandit of Calabria or whining beggar 'of Palermo, than draw a hundred lines of railway through the length of Italy, or carry out a sanitary reform in its fullest details in every city of Sicily, except so far as these great national works tended to some spiritual good beyond them." Perhaps as we have said the Roman Catholic clergy believe that all must be subservient to what they believe is necessary for the safety of the soul. And hence sooner than allow the young Holt to be brought up by his brother away from the teachings of priests, they would rather see him remain amongst strangers in the Industrial School. Happily for ua we have not yet admitted that the State should be secondary to the Church. Nor have we asserted, as a province or colony, that our children should be rather brought up in ignorance than lose reverence for ecclesiastical authority. These views are unfortunately held by the vast majority of the Catholic clergy, and hence our educat onal debates. Indeed the Dublin Review in a recent number, is not ashamed to publish these opinions in all their nakedness, eg., "If we had really to choose between two undesirable alternatives, it is indefinitely a less evil, that the Catholic gentry of linglaud should be ever so inferior to their Protestant fellow-countrymen in mental power and cultivation, than that they should lose one particle of that reverence for ecclesiastical authority, which is now their noble characteristic." The only wonder to us is that when the clergy publish such opinions sensible laymen are found remaining members of the church and supporting ecclesiastical authority. As for our Otago Ginx-baby it remains with its brother and we agree with Mr Weldon in his remarks to the Provincial Secretary " that it would be almost cruel to deny the child a good home, kind treatment, and the immediate guardianship of a brother, simply because Mr M'Morran is a Protestant."

The Rev. Father Coleman addressed tke following letter to the Star on the 25th :—: — A REPLY TO GINK'S BABY. To the Editor. Sir, — I am glad you have brought the case of the child Holt before the public. You have omitted to state that this child is registered, in the books of the Industrial School, as a Roman Catholic : that the Colonial law orders each child in the school to be registered under some religious denomination ; evidently implying that the child is to be reared in that denomination : that the Superintendent gave orders that as far as possible, no Catholic child should be licensed out to a Protestant, and without the approbation of the Roman Catholic clergy : that this child was sent from the industrial School after the clergyman had protested against sending the child to Mr M'Moran at Clyde. You also omitted stating that this child's brother is only sixteen years of age, and not a Roman Catholic; and that the child was licecsed out, not to his brother, but to Mr M'Moran, a Presbyterian ; and consequently ' that M'Moran has the control of the child. ■That his Honor the Superintendent promised me if he found that M'Moran is a Protestant, he would order the return of the child ; that he finds M'Moran is a Protestant, and yet he has not kept the promise ; that the Superintendent's orders have been violated in sending this Roman Catholic child to a Protestant, notwithstanding the protest of the Koman Catholic clergyman ; and yet he supports the authorities of the Industrial School in acting contrary to his Honor's orders. I leave it to the public to decide, )f I were justified in placing the case before the Superintendent : and when justice was not done, in complaining of the course adopted, in violation of promises made to me, and in charging, those concerned with proselytism. Let me add that I think you would be acting impartially by letting the public have all the facts as in the correspondence. — lam, &c., Wm. Coleman, R.C. Clergyman. Dunedin, June 25,

On the 25th the following reply was inserted in the Star :— Were we to find fault with the grammatical construction of the Rev. W. Coleman's letter published in our last night's issue, we might be thought captious if not heretical. We shall not, therefore, pretend to fathom the various "thats" and "yets." It may be that clergymen who take a great interest in the up-bringing of children get so engrossed in the future welfare of the babies professing their religion— or registered as professing it— that the usual rules of English composition are ignored. In reply to Mr Coleman's letter, we can only say that we are not conscious of having suppressed any fact whatever, concerning the child Holt. It does not appear from the correspondence we quoted whether the elder Holt is or is not a Catholic, and as to the conversations with his Honor the Superintendent, these do not appear, except by re- ! ference in Mr Coleman's letter. We have placed all the facts in the correspondence before the public, and we do not see that even Mr Colemau's letter gives any additional facts, except two, viz., that Mr M'Alorran is a Presbyterian, and the elder Holt a Protestant. In no part of the correspondeuce, do these two statements appear. As to the "justice "of the case we have no doubt that the public will, independent of Father Coletnan's letter or our remarks, form their opinions on the subject. They may also, by a careful perusal of the correspondence, get an additional synonym for the word "justice"— at all events, as used by some clergymen. We sincerely hope that young Holt will be spared to grow up a tiue Catholic, and will yet thank his clergymen for their efforts to save him from the contagious influence of his Protestant brother. I