THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, MAY 15, 1909. "THE WRONG THAT RAMIFIES."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3190, 15 May 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, MAY 15, 1909. "THE WRONG THAT RAMIFIES."

Under the above title the Tablet, in a recent issue, directs attention to a manifest injustice. After referring to the much discussed question of Government capitation for Catholic schools it truly remarks "people are often more intimately afflicted and embittered by the little meannesses and the petty blisters of life than by its greater tribulations " The Tablet proceeds to remark —"And one can readily in the circumstances, understand the * Reeling of strong indignation with which the Catholics of Oamaru have viewed the latest penalty imposed upon them for their conscientious and practical belief in Christ as the grand Model and Exemplar to keep ever before the minds of the little men and maids at school. Catholic ratepayers in the "White City" contributed their proper quota towards the erection of the local Municipal Swimming Baths; they, too, contribute their due proportion towards the cost of an instructor, and towards the capitation grant allowed by the Education Department in respect of children trained in the useful art of swimming and of life saving. We let an Oamaru contemporary tell the remainder of the tale: —Recently applications were made by the heads of the Catholic schools in Oamaru to the Borough Council for the use of the Municipal Swimming Baths on the same terms as those enjoyed by the public schools. On receipt of the applications, the Town Clerk wrote to the Otago Education Board asking if Catholic schools were eligible to receive the capitation grant of 2s 6d paid in respect of every child attending twenty swimming lessons in any given school year, and received a reply that pupils attending Catholic schools were not eliigble to attend swimming classes in respect of which such capitation grant was paid." On receipt of the intimation the Town Clerk addressed a reply to the Minister for Education, in the course of which, he wrote: "I am instructed by his Worship the Mayor to point out that the art of swimming and life-saving is an accomplishment altogether outside of the ordinary school woik, which should be learned by all, and every facility afforded to those wishing to

'earn. The ability to save life from drowning is a matter of national importance, in which the question of creed can in no way enter, and I am instructed to request that you will take into serious consideration the question of making, the capitation apply to all schools complying with the regulations now governing public schools and so abolish the disability under which the Catholic schools of the Dominion now suffer in this respect. In Oamaru the baths and'a competent instructor are provided by the Municipality, and what is now asked is, s that the boys and girls should have an equal opportur.ity'of qualifying for capitation irrespective of what school they happen to attend." The Otago Educahas probably acted within the its"authority, but the incident is one that should not have occurred in an independent and en-

lightened country like New Zealand. The Government, so far as their own schools are"concerned, in adhering to a free, secular and compulsory system are doing, in our opinion, what is entirely right, and it would, indeed, be an unfortunate day for New Zealanders if any departure were made from the present system, but the fact of the Government having adopted a desirable system of education is no reason at all why they should steadfastly refuse to assist those scholastic institutions that are relieving the State of a portion of its . burden. Any grant would have, of course, to be subject to certain conditions being complied with, but to absolutely decline to grant any assistance to denominational schools, irrespective of how they are conducted, or for what purposes they exist seems to us to be, not only a narrow-minded policy, but one \ that is detrimental to the welfare of the State, and. which will, as time goes on, prove a greater error than may be argued to-day.