ANOTHER CONTRAST.
New Zealand Tablet, Volume XV, Issue 14, 29 July 1887, Page 16
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ANOTHER CONTRAST.
The Premier of Quebec province, Canada, speaking in reference to the educational question in that province, says : v Sectional education is a burning question in some countries. We have solved the problem satisfactorily. We grant the Protestant minority entire control of their children's education. Where the Catholics outnumber the Protestants, the latter elect their own school trustees, independently of the Catholics, collect their own school taxes, build their own schools, and choose their own teachers, and control the method of instruction. We have a Council of Public Instruction for the whole province, divided into two committees, one Protestant, and the other Catholic." What a contrast between this action of a Catholic province, and the bigoted and unjust aad unpolitic action of New Zealand, where Catholics are excluded from all participation in public education, and from all share of the education grant ! "We observe that all the candidates for Parliamentary honours declare that the present godless system prevailing in this country shall not be interfered with, whilst a great number, if uot the majority of them, think that if a penny less than half a million (£500,000) be spent on schools, public education will go to tho dogs. And some of them assign comical reasons for advocating the continuance of godless education. For instance, one of the candidates for Dunedin Central argues thus : " When going to a Wesley an school, where 1 was brought up, I used to fight once a week with the pupils of a Presbyterian school, and once a week also with those of a Church of England school. I was a bad, naughty boy in those days," and then comes the portentous conclusion, " therefore God and religion should be banished from all schools."
