THE PRIMATE'S RETURN

Evening Star, Issue 13016, 10 January 1907, Page 4

THE PRIMATE'S RETURN

j.:.: ~,,;.--' *■- ;,—' ~?£& POSITION OF THE ANGLICAN v SCHOOLS. The Host Reverend the Primate of New Zealand returned to Dunedin yesterday, and in the course- of a conversational interview he gave a very succinct account of the history and position of the Anglican Church schools at Homo. At first, when a general question as to tho trend of religious feeling at Home -was put to him, Bishop Nevfll said that he had not yet had time to formulat© the opinions he had conceived, but when a leading question was put t« him concluding with a recent remark 01 the Rev. Mr Gauge—" tho Anglican Church at Home is honeycombed with Roman Catholicism *'—tho Pnmaie replied very decidedly: "That is all nonsense." Ho then at onoe proceeded to give an account of the history of the English Church schools and the Education Bill, of which so much has been written and said. This is how he put it: The eighteenth century was & laary sort of century, and at the beginning of the nineteentn century there were, so to speak, great arrears of education to be made up) there was a great deal of illiteracy. Tm English Church took upon itself tho burden of these arrears. By voluntary subscriptions alone tho Church built, equipped, and maintained schools, on which, daring a period of thirty years, the sum of one million pounds was" annually spent. In 1870 Mr Forster brought in an Education Bill that was intended in some measure to v relievo the Church schools of a rapidly increasing burden. Board schools, paid for out of the rates, were set up, and there was also a provision whereby the Church schools received so much aid from the Government for every child who passed the Government inspector's examination. This was of great assistance to the Church, but in another direction the Bill acted as its author never intended that it should act. The position now was that the Board schools were being contributed to by all ratepayers, and the Church schools wer* being Voluntarily supported by a section of the ratepayers. That section of the ratepayers were paying twice for education. Moreover, about this time the rivalry began, unfortunately, to become of a p**y nature. What may be called the PoUticaJ Nonconformists began to seek everywhere for office hi municipal matters, this enabling them to • control the Board schools, and they opposed the Church schools in every possible way. Finally influence was brought to bear which resulted in the Education Bill introduced by Mr BineD. "By this Bill," said the Primate, "the Church schools would all be confiscated — there is no other word for it—and the Church, which spent £30,000,000 on their equipment and maintenance at a time when no orw elffs cared to face the arrears (except, perhaps, the Roman Cathonce), the Church was to havs no say in the gwwemment of the schools and to receive no sort of compensation. . The Primate continued that the working people w-ero very much oppo»ed to the Bill, and indignation meetings were held everywhere, a huge band coming from Manchester to London to attend a meeting at the Albert Hall. A final question as to the outcome drew this reply: "My impression is that the thing wiU be allowed to drop tHI the pot simmers down, and if is brought up again it will be in the shape of a much more reasonable Bill, drawn up from the recent experience."