Petty Persecution

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 47, 21 November 1907, Page 22

Petty Persecution

Our co-religionists in Victoria are fighting a battle against a peculiarly mean form of petty persecution. .It all arises out of a one-sided and unjust application of the law for the compulsory registration of teachers.- By» a curious freak of administrative folly — or bigotry — a- 1--higher qualification is required for teachers .in Catholic : parochial schools than for teachers in Stfete schools. The--' Melbourne ' Tribune ' of November 9 tells how 'comparatively few of the two hundred students in the State Continuation School, after two years' study,' passed the examination" "(1906) for either the Junior Public or Second Class State Certificate '. Yet ' notwithstanding the failure of the great majority of these' students, they were appointed to teach in the State schools ', after having passed ' a much inferior test called an exit examination . Our Melbourne contemporary goes on to say :—: — _ _ • - ■ > . ' We do not say those students who failed to pass the higher examination should not have* been appointed .; probably they , are 'quite qualified to ' act as junior teachers, and may eventually attain the highest qualifications. But this 'is the fact which matters : They -would not be N allowed under the Registration Board's Regulations to teaclrin a Catholic school. The -State ■ s glad* 'to get them. We' would not be- allowed to employ them. We recommend that this fact be remembered and well-digested, and that it be made as public as possible. , Here is the most admirahle summary of the Catholic claim :—: — f " In the name of justice and fair play, we ask to be allowed the common right of every teacher in this State — namely, to use, as an alternative, the programme of the State Education Department in the training and" examination of our teachers. In other words, we ask that no person who would be qualified' to teach in a State school shall be debarred from teaching in any of our "Primary or Sub-Primary Parochial schools. " ' ' The probability of a similar registration law finding its way in^ time upon our statute-book gives New Zealand Catholics a. more than fraternal interest in the struggle that our s kith and kin of the faith are making for even justice in Victoria. They .are probably fighting our battle, in advance, as well as their own.