CRIME AND EDUCATION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 102, 10 April 1875, Page 11

CRIME AND EDUCATION.

■ ++ In his charge to the Grand Jury of Auckland, Mr. Justice Gillies is reported to liave spoken a3 follows :—": — " It was a remarkable fact that, amoug the prisoners for trial, there was not one of the newly-arrived immigrants. A large proportion of the prisoners were educated men. Charges of larceny preponderated, but, as usual, there were several cases of forgery and uttering." And Mr. Justice Williams, in his charge to the Grand Jury at Christchnrch said :-~" Ignorance was the parent of many crimes. Frauds, however, required a certain amount of education. As education was more widely diffused, it was reasonably to be expected that crimes of violence would diminish ; but it was unfortunate if crimes of fraud increased. Education, to be complete, must develop the moral sentiments as well as the intellectual powers." It is to be hoped that our legislators will read these weighty words, and take to heart their significance. Our Judges have ascertained that education has not succeeded in diminishing great crimes, and have accordingly deemed it their duty to warn the public of the fact. In Auckland, " a large proportion of the prisoners were educated men." We should like to know under what system they were educated, whether their education was secular, mixed, or religious — that is, denominational. An inquiry ought to be instituted in reference to this point ; the result could not fail to be both interesting and useful. Mr. Justice Williams is convinced that " education to be complete, must develop the moral sentiments as well as the intellectual powers." But how is this to be done 1 Certainly not by the Godless systems called secular, which are so much in vogue in the present century. From the fir3t the Church has proclaimed the evil of merely secular education, and insisted on the principle that religion should be nob only the foundation, but the all-pervading influence in the education of the people j that the education unless, guided and sanctified by religion, instead of being a blessing, would result in becoming the curse of nations — an instrument to develop great criminals instead of good citizens. Men, not actuated and driven headlong by the anti-Catholic mania and the infidel's hatred of Christianity, foresaw all this very clearly. It is to be hoped that the warnings of our Judges, for their utterances are warnings, will make an impression on our statesmen and legislators. The systems of education prevailing in most of our Provinces can only end in producing accomplished criminals. All of course will jiot be criminals ; but such as may escape, and these, we hope, may be many, will owe their escape to influences altogether independent of their training in the Government schools. Their escape will be quasi per ignem. If the Government and the Parliament really desire to do their duty in reference to education, they will hasten to establish Denominational schools whenever it is possible to do so.

Ik England the National Church has 1,452,600 children in its schools ; the Nonconformists, 435,426 in theirs ; the Catholics, 125,697; and the ßoard-echools, 111,286. The 'London Tablet* is glad to find that the per-centage of the average attendance is larger in the Catholic than in any other schools ; and, further, that in regard to the results of the examination, the highest per-centage in th» passes in the different standards has been made by the Catholic schools. This speaks very highly for the zeal of the clergy in working up the average attendance, and for the efficiency of the teachers. Thb mines of Laurium in Greece as is well known, are in great measure composed of scoria, or the refuse of ancient silver mines worked by Greek miners about 1600 years ago. On clearing away • mass of this refuse lately, a large number of seeds of a papareracea of the Glacivm genus were found, which must have been hurried there for at least 1500 years. Exposed to the influence of the sun's ray«, they rapidly took root, budded, and blossomed ;, their yellow corolla* being beautiful in the extreme. This interesting flower, unknown to modern science, is particularly and frequently described in the writings of Pliny and Dioscoridesf and have been thus again resuacitated* after having disappeared from the Burf ace of the globe for more than.' fifteen centuries. The following is a new phase of reporting enterprise :— During a secret session of a Chicago board of commissioners, one was astonished to see an augur-tip projecting through the carpet, and, upon an examination, found that a party of reporters had bored through from the cellar for the purpose of hearing what was said*