THE EDUCATION QUESTION.

Evening Star, Issue 2797, 3 February 1872, Page 2

THE EDUCATION QUESTION.

To the Editor, As the Public Schools Act appears a vexaia qucstio at the present, permit nr 1 , without apology, to make a few remarks thereon, chiefly touching certain points on which Bishop Moran and his Church seem somewhat p_ggr|eved. There appears tp iflc a gopd 4eal pf ppnhision in Iji? lordship’s treatment cf the subject, and palpable inconsistency. He denounces the system of education a? administered at present in this Province, because it is calculated to undermine the faith of Catholic children. I would ask his Lord-ship-rrrWhore has there ever been in any of the schools an attempt at pvogelytism ? But be does not approve, he says, of schools where the education is purely secular; yet we have him declaring that he does not wish aid from the Government to propagate his own peculiar dogmas, hut only to teach Catholic children to read and write. But, further, the Bishop objects to mixed schools altogether. How is it, might I ask, that the Hierarchy of Ids Church approved of the Irish National systenf of education, which has mixed sphopls V ’ Hpw patne ij tq pass that the Eev. Dr Ullathorne, Eomau Catholic Vicar-General in New South Wales, prior to the arrival of Archbishop Poldiug, advocated the introduction of the same system in Sydney, which has mixed schools ? When the Irish system was established in Sydney, Dr Ullathorne, with his energetic coadjutor, the Eev. W[r M'Enoroe, cele-

brated the victory by a banquet in the Pulteney Hotel (1835), when a satirical poem as written tor the occasion, remarkably well received by Protestants of all denominations, who were favorable to the British and Foreign system. The only dish was an Irish stew, and the verses ran thus : “ An Irish Roman Catholic priest Got up in his place and blest the feast, And then helped himself, as he well could do To a trencher full of the Irish stew. He dived right into it all in a minute, And showed there was never a Bible in it, For what said he had the Bible to do, Either inside or outside an Irish stew. How does it come that in Holland, where there is the best system of education in the world, the schools are mixed ?” There there are Calvanists, Luthcrian, and Roman Catholic children taught • children of all churches ; and it is highly commended by the priesthood of Dr Moran’s church there. Instead of interrupting the harmony which should subsist among them, it has strengthened the bonds of amity, and emancipated the country from sect prejudices, and embracing in his arms the rising generation. Why should we not have mixed schools here, so approved of by the Chief Priest of Holland ? Because the Books are insulting to hia faith ! Well, discard them, and adopt the Irish National School Books, as in Sydney, Victoria, and Canterbury ; they contain nothing offensive to any denomination, and are superior as works of literature The Bishop in the Scotch books there is poison. Reject it by all means; but take care that in the books approved of by the learned Bishop there would be no stryphnineto Protestaqt children in’the shape of odes to Mary and Joseph !