Crisis Caused By N.S.W. Church Schools Closing

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29872, 12 July 1962, Page 11

Crisis Caused By N.S. W. Church Schools Closing

(NZ. Press Assn.—Copyright) SYDNEY, July 11. The New South Wales State Government could not escape a bitter sectarian fight on the State aid for schools issue when Parliament reassembled next month, political observers said today.

The crisis created by the Roman Catholic Church in Goulburn had made a major flare-up inevitable, they said.

Politicians of all parties expressed surprise yesterday when the Roman Catholic authorities approved the decision by a meeting of 500 parents to close Goulburn’s Roman Catholic schools for a period of six weeks. Governing Labour Party members today predicted that the Government will be embarrassed by an open Country Party move in Parliament to bring the school aid issue to a head. They anticipate that the Country Party, which supports limited aid for denominational schools, will do this by introducing a private member’s bill along the lines of its election policy promise. This was a pledge to pay the interest on loans for the construction of private schools. Such a motion would open up a debate on the issue. Cause of Division It would cause a division in which Government members would individually have to reveal their support or opposition. The Labour member of the State Legislative Assembly

for Goulburn (Mr L. J. TuUy) said he would ask the State Government to appoint a Royal Commission to inquire into State aid for church schools. The Deputy Premier (Mr John Renshaw) refuted to withdraw the order for extension of a toilet block at a Goulburn Roman Catholic school. This order led to the closing of the schools. Sharp division in Liberal Party policy on school aid was reported. The Anglican Dean of Goulburn (Dean King) supported the Goulburn Roman Catholic parents’ demand for State aid for denominational schools. “But I do not think they should be assisted beyond school buildings. Private schools must have some assistance if they are to continue,” he said. Newspaper Comment Sydney newspapers today gave prominence to the issue. The “Sydney Dally Telegraph,” in its editorial, said: “The Roman Catholic decision to close all its schools is a challenge which the State Government should take up straight away. , “If it wants to govern as an elected Government, it must resist this undisguised attempt to frighten it into sub-

mission. As an elected Government It stands for certain democratic principles, among them the principle of free and undenominational schooling for every child in the State.” the “Sydney Daily Telegraph* * said.

The “Sydney Morning Herald” said in an editorial: "Acutely embarrassed though It must be, the State Government has no alternative but to resist the heavy pressure now being openly exerted against it by Roman Catholics in Goulburn. It cannot afford to risk greatly intensifying the sectarian stresses which already exist in our community. “It cannot possibly give direct aid to denominational (mostly Roman Catholic) schools, because in so doing it would have to divert substantial sums of money from its own well developed but perennially hard-pressed education system—a system which, after all. Is ‘secular’ and should be maintained as such,” the “Sydney Morning Herald” said.