The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, MAY 22, 1919. TRUE EDUCATION

New Zealand Tablet, 22 May 1919, Page 25

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, MAY 22, 1919. TRUE EDUCATION

fFEW weeks ago, in a hall where the apostle of hate was pleading for schools from which ■ religion should, be excluded, the \ Rev. Mr.Whyte, of Port Chalmers, had the courage to stand up : and, propose, a series of.resolur tions directly contrary to ii: the policy for which the > hired lecturer of ,the : P.P.A. v " stands indeed,'he, stands for. anything but his own interest. . Mr. . Whyte boldly proclaimed the necessity for :,; religious ... training , in. schools, and called on , a Government supposed by some foolish people to represent the interests of ,the Christian people of this Dominion to . do its duty by the schools: and the teachers that strove, alone> and unaided, to. safeguard the /eternal principles of.'right.-, on which. thj& stability of ' families and of nations rests.. Naturally,:

at : meeting to which only those who are in favor of the policy of the bigots of the P.P. A. movement are admitted * by ticket, Mr. Whyte's resolution received' 1 - but little support?. However, it had 5 its effect: it proved to all that the sound and 5 learned opinion of the ministers 'of the 3 Protestant Churches are conscious that the - time has f come for them 'to fight' openly the -forces \ that ' make for dissolution and anarchy ; " in New r Zealand, and that they 'recognise': that the only way to. do this is by educating the young people in Christian ' schools. Further evidence of this fact gathered from the following report of the Anglican Synod: . .;; ' ■*•';^'-i K-rv '■■■■• •■* •■■ '■> '■'<■■ •- ■ ■ • ■>, ■'■'•- 'Napier, May : 8.. "At ; the .General. Synod to-day, speaking on ,the question, of reviving the Bible-in-Schools League, the Bishop of Wellington said that modern civilisation, was merely nominally Christian, but was really heathen, with a tincture of Christianity. Religious education by convinced Christian teachers was necessary. Canon P.-l;. T.. Williams ascribed all the . social evils to the absence of religion from the education system. The whole-hearted support of Church schools was essential." = ,-;'. - * -;:.; The State schools of New Zealand are not Christian. /.They are not even neutral. It was long ago decided in America that a school from which the teaching' of Christ is excluded is anti-Christian and biassed. The Government of this country supports, against the will of the majority of a Christian community, schools which are directly calculated to promote the irreligious and atheistical . views of a minority. The Government supports schools which do "not in any true sense educate at all, for apart from Christian views we have the clear testimony of French and English rationalists to tell us beyond doubt that secular schools utterly fail to form the characters of the young, and that their results are most injurious to the welfare of the nation. The heads of the French educational system frankly admit failure ; they confess that without moral and dogmatic teaching as a foundation, the education of their schools ends in disorder and immorality. Education that tends to develop but one side of the character is fruitless. Learning may make a clever man, but it never makes a good man. ' Herbert Spencer, who is surely no prejudiced witness ; in our favor, says:—"Are not fraudulent bankrupts educated people, and getters-up of bubble companies,' and makers of adulterated goods, and users of false trade marks, and retailers who have light weights, arid owners of unseaworthy ships, and those who cheat insurance companies, and those who carry on turf chicaneries, and the great majority of gamblers? This belief in the moralising effects of intellectual culture, flatly ! contradicted by facts, is absurd a priori. How does knowledge of the multiplication table, or quickness in adding or dividing, so increase the sympathies as to restrain the tendency to trespass against fellow-crea-tures ?■'• In what way can the attainment of accuracy in spelling or parsing, etc., make the sentiment of justice more powerful than it was or why, from stores of geographical knowledge, perseveringly gathered, is there likely to come increased regard for truth ? The irrelation between such causes arid effects is almost as great as that between exercises of the fingers and strengthening the legs." And Huxley, who is still less on our side, says:— "If lam a knave or a fool, teaching me to" read or write won't make me less of either one or the other, "unless somebody shows me how to put my reading or writing to good purposes." We have in the - daily ' press as well' as in the example of at least one advocate of secular schools appalling instances of .the want ; of ' principle to which irreligious schools lead.

Catholics take a high stand in the matter of education because they fully realise the importance of right formation of character while the boy or girl is plastic and easily moulded for good or for' ill. ‘ We hold firmly that the eternal interests ’ of mankind are of first‘ importance, and that it will profit a man nothing ' to ‘ gain whole world if he suffer the loss of his immortal

soul. On that ground' alone 'there is no room for argument, when- the education of v our boys and : girls is at stake. ; A parent who- does not send his children to- a Catholic school is not a true Catholic, nor is he fulfilling his obligations > towards his - children. .Show ,us any Catholic • parent who sins in this respect, ; and we shall have no hesitation branding him as disloyal fto God and to his own family. Apart from this consideration, we assert that our schools, handicapped and hindered as they are by bigots and unprincipled politicians, are superior to the State schools. The results are the test. No schools in the Dominion have better averages ■ than ours none impart anything like <so thorough a culture and so whole a training, it tln mental training, in manners and morals, and no less in athletics, we are able to hold up our heads and challenge competition. So much so that the person who so fitly represents the narrow and sciolist, secular system was laughed to scorn even by the secular press a short time ago when he tried to defend a characteristic action of his by the silly and transparently false excuse that one of our schools was “inefficient.” However, the question mainly concerns souls? Secularism knows nothing of souls, and parents who support it care very little about them. To our own, and to those of other Churches who do believe that there is a God above us, we put it that the time has come for all true Christians to.make common cause against the irreligious , propaganda, to which the wretched politicians of the Dominion have sold themselves. In plain terms, it comes to a question as to whether or no we realise our duty to God and to the children on whom the future of the country depends.