A SCHOLARSHIP QUESTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10713, 11 December 1912, Page 4

A SCHOLARSHIP QUESTION.

By some remarkable misconception of the circumstances surrounding the education of Roman Catholic children, the Wellington Post and the chairman of the Education Board view the application of the Roman Catholic Church for permission for the taking up of scholarships won at their own schools in their own colleges, a-s an attempt to extend the principle of denominational education. We confess that, after analysing the question, in all its bearings, we are unable to follow the reasoning of those who entertain this view. The State has already conceded a right to the Roman Catholics to impart primary instruction to their young. It has permitted students at Roman schools to compete for scholarships. What justification can there be for the refusal to allow those scholarships to be taken up in Roman Catholic Colleges? The concession cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be construed into a State endowment of a denominational institution. On the contrary, it is relieving the State of a. portion of the liability ,for secondary instruction. The argument that applies to the primary Roman schools) applies with equal force to the secondarv institutions.