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Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 892, 25 November 1871, Page 2

However adverse opinions may be as to the form in whieh Education should be provided by tho Stite, they are. we believe, united as to the fact that it is a natural duty to provide every child with the advantages of an ordinary education. Amid the diverse opinions that have been expressed, the two that have been most numerously assented to are a purely secular form of education and a denominational system, and the advocates of each have advanced their respective views with a bitterness and wunt of forbearance which were fatal to an impartial discussion of so momentous a question. The opinions of those who believe that the education of a child should be inseparable from a training in some form of religious faith have been strenuously opposed by those who maintain that the teaching of religion in any shape, is unnecessary to education and should be altogether apart from it. "While the latter have been unwilling or unable to admit the debt we owe to religion as the sole protector of educatiou during centuries of oppression and anarchy, the deuornmatioaalists have been forgetful of tho vast strides made in later years in every branch of human learning, and the fervent desire that has arisen to disconnect the development of the mind from the teaching of any peculiar doctrine of faith, or to fetter the latter by the inculcation of any arbitrary dogma. It is impossible in any plan of education to be brought forward that the divergent opinions of those opposing classes can be completely satisfied. All we hope for is the introduction of such a measure as shall deal with the question in a fair and liberal spirit, conciliating as far as possible the adverse views of both these parties. The withdrawal of the Education Bill during the last session has been due to the opposition with which the various clauses were met at every stage, rendering it impossible to arrive at any plain and practical result, so long as the extreme views of secularists and denominationalists refused any compromise calculated to further the object in view. This breakdown, entailing at least a year's delay, wiil be regretted by all who desire to see the establishment of a general scheme of education throughout the colony.