THE PRIESTS’ EDUCATIONAL CLAIM.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 59, 20 February 1911, Page 11

THE PRIESTS’ EDUCATIONAL CLAIM.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —The priests, not the people, of the Roman Church, in view of the election, make demands to receive the education tax of their own people for their own schools. This is only justice, they cry. There are, however, many points to be considered. For example, in our country the Government does not desire to differentiate Catholic children from Protestant children. They are all the children of the country for whom the State provides education. That does not fit in with the priest’s power and . so he makes the difference. The priest says it is for the higher welfare of the child he does this; religion is needed to complete a child’s education. But false, corrupt, religion may have a very bad effect upon the children of the State. And in the opinion of the vast majority of the people of this country, the Roman religion is false, superstitious 1 and idolatrous in many of its essen-

tial dogmas. The only authority for the dogmas is the Romish curia. Their effect is hurtful to the child and to the adult. The people by this teaching are dwarfed mentally, and as Father Crowley says, “it is a menace to foe nation.” Six years ago an employer of labour asked one of his workmen how he was going to vote. “I don’t know ; Father will tell us on Sunday.” That is not the kind of elections we want in, New Zealand, but it is the sort that the priests’ school will give us.

“The ruin of Ireland has been justly traced by Mr. Hugh O’Donnell to the priestly dominion of foe Irish schools.” Mr. I. F. McCarthy urges foe same with the burning earnestness of an enlightened Catholic and patriot. And Father Crowley’s book, “The Parochial School, a Curse to foe Church, a Menace to foe Nation,” shows how mischievous foe Catholic schools are in America. Let people read “Shall Rome Reconquer England.” Let them read foe chapter on foe Romish blight and they shall see how foe education given in foe priest’s school / “paralyses foe nerves aqd. dries foe life-blood of

the people,” to quote McCarthy again, no free country could maintain its freedom or its intelligence if the priest was to control education. Enlightened Catholics know this and send their children to the public schools to give them an equaj chance in life with Protestant children. The Catholic people do not want these schools, the priest forces them into them.

If the taxes were granted to them, it would have to be given to Jews, or Chinamen, or any other class, and we would undermine the life of our own people. Then, it should not be overlooked that a vast number of private schools exist in our country besides the Catholic schools. There are several such in our own district. These schools do not clamour for the repayment of taxes, but they are as umch entitled to them as the Catholics.

The whip of the priest is rounding up the Catholic sheep for the next election. At the Churches, they are having them all enrolled, and no doubt told by the Father how to vote. An effort is sure to be made to capture would-be politicians by foe offer -of a solid Irish' vote.' Let us see that the man who gives that pledge shall pass into obscurity. They are only oneseventh of the people, and therefore should not count if we do our duty to our country and to the Roman Catholic children. Some indeed no say “give them foe money, it is the surest way to make the Catholic Church decay, for such as she can only be “hewers of wood and drawers of water. That would be quite after the spirit of foe priest, but we cannot do evil that good may come. Besides the State requires that all her people shall be fit, the best citizens that can be turned out. To protect ourselves we must make the State school foe most attractive and the best equipped of institutions, and so bring all the children into them. They are

not, and never can oe made fit in the Catholic school. There they are taught what is not true in religion, in history, and in science. The State cannot agree to pay for a wrong education. —I am, etc.,

DOMINION-