WORK OF 54 YEARS

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 260, 29 July 1932, Page 9

WORK OF 54 YEARS

Catholic Education A GENERAL REVIEW (By P. R. Kuiti.) It is over 54 years since the present State system of free, secular, and compulsory education was legalised, and the Catholics and other denominations of the Dominion undertook to provide throughout the whole country religious education for their children. The Catholics in particular have made . a j wholehearted sacrifice. It is a sacrifice 1 that has still to be made, and in order to meet the secondary education problem, there is a still greater sacrifice ahead. Crown Colony Period, 1840-1852. The first schools in New Zealand were provided by religious bodies, not by the State. In a few instances the State did give some aid. In this respect, Sir George Grey did far more than Hobson, Shortland, and Fitzroy. Anglicans, Wesleyans, and Catholics received altogether from the public funds £5900 annually (mainly for the Maoris), on the condition of Governmetn inspection, the teaching of English, and 1 industrial training. ■ In 1852 the Provincial Government became responsible for education. Under the new system, religious instruction i was generally included in the curriculum. but the method varied widely. Where it was part of the public system, there was a conscience clause for those who objected. But this article is not intended for the purpose of examining those systems in detail. I an! concerned with denominational schools under provincial rule from 1852 to 1876. Denominations which set up thejr own schools were generally given some aid provided that the required secular teaching was given, and that the denomination found part of the cost.

The Act of 1877. The provinces were abolished in 1876, and a Central Government established. One of the first Acts of Parliament was the Education Act of 1877. . Without entering into details of the long discussion that preceded the Act, it is enough to say that it set up a new system of “free, secular, and compulsory” education. Henceforward denominational schools were to receive no assistance from the public purse. The system begun in the days of the Crown Colony, when the religions bodies had led the way in education, the system that was general under the provinces, was now definitely set aside by a body which was probably less fully representative of local feeling than the Provincial Assemblies had been. Curtis’s Amendment (In favour of the Nelson system), which would have saved the Catholic cause, was lost in the Legislative Council by a vote. Henceforward Catholics were forced to send their children to secular schools or to face the gigantic task of providing their own, The latter alternative might well seem an impossibility. During the debate, in fact, Sir George Grey declared: “The effect of the measure will be to destroy in a short time all private schools in New Zealand.”

A small body-—numerically and financially—the Catholics did not hesitate. In conscious protest against the secular system, they' began to build the first of the network of, parochial schools that now spreads over the land. So vigorously and quickly did they move that within seven years the foundation stone of St. Patrick’s College (for boys) was laid at Wellington, and

the college was opened in 1885 as a boarding and day school combined. A vast number of boys have already passed through the college into professional, farming, and commercial life. Today the residential part of the college has been removed to the new St. Patrick’s College, a large and up-to-date academic building at Silverstream, in the Hutt Valley. Where a new district was formed, the first school followed the first church. Often the school began with lay teachers till a body of religious was available. At present all these parochial schools are staffed by religious. A great deal of credit is due to quiet practical leadership of the Catholic Education Trust Board (founded in 1913), and the energy of its officers. They are aware, however, of the magnitudj? of their task, and although some difficult times have been experienced i: New Zealand during the past,’nevertheless they have met each reverse in a spirit which augurs well for the future. Like their predecessors, they are making the self-same sacrifice that Catholics have made fpr over 54 years —an eloquent testimony to the courage, determination, and faith of the Catholic people.