Religious v. Secular Education

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 13, 1 April 1909, Page 489

Religious v. Secular Education

On the next two" pages of this issue appears the twelfth" -' and last of the, series of articles on 'The Secular Phase of, Our Education System,' which the editor of -"the New; Zealand Tablet has been for some time past contributing' to the Otago. Daily Times (Dunedin). This closing article, appeared in last Saturday's issue of our esteemed local contemporary. The same issue contained an editorial reply. We quote the -following, therefrom,, as illustrating • i>he kindly, dignified, and courteous — even courtly — spirit which the Otago Daily Times brings to the discussion of the theme : ' Our issue of this morning contains the final article of the series in which the editor of the New Zealand Tablet has been discussing, in our columns, the secular phase of our education system as viewed from the standpoint of the Roman* Catholic body. A peculiar value attaches to this series of articles, since it has provided absolutely the first complete presentation that has appeared in any secular journal in the Australasian colonies, if not, indeed, in any secular journal anywhere, of the "Roman Catholic opinion of the principles which should regulate any system of national -education. The articles have also "commanded respect by reason of the high degree of scholarship which their author has brought with him to the performance of his undertaking, of the conspicuous ability with which the views of the Roman Catholic community have been stated and its claims advanced by him, and of the dignified restraint which has marked his expression of these views and claims. 3

The Otago Daily Times then proceeds to restate and defend its position with a dignity and a kindliness of feeling which add a fresh adornment to' its old and honorable traditions. In fairness to our valued contemporary, we must here state that it does not accept as correct our statement that at one time it stood for religion in, the ..school and for a denominational system side by side with that- of the State. Our reperusal of its article of July 2, 1880, however, does not render it possible for us to recede from our view, as expressed in the course of the article thab appears on the next two pages. So we shall agree .to differ thereon, like reasonable people, in a reasonable and friendly way. A reply to the Times article, and to such criticisms as may arise, will bring the present writer's association with the discussion to a close. The discussion on^ the subject (with the exception of such matter irrelevant to the education issue as has been, or may be, injected into it) will be published in book-form at the offi.ee of the New Zealand Tablet. The editor of this paper desires to record, in the most emphatic way, his deep sense of the generosity of the space accorded to him for a series of- article, in criticism of our contemporary's policy, which went far beyond his original purpose and intent ; likewise his profound sense of the fair, courteous, and even chivalrous treatment extended to him, in every w/iy, in connection with this attempt to place the Catholic view of education before the wide circle of re.aders of the Otago Daily Times.