CATHOLIC CHILDREN.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 25 March 1922, Page 5

CATHOLIC CHILDREN.

POSITION REGARDING SCHOLARSHIPS.

A MINISTERIAL STATEMENT

Speaking at the Irish national concert! in Dunedin on St. Patrick's Day, Bishop Whyte said the funds accuring from that; qoncert were going to be used to enable children in the Catholic schools who had won scholarships, and who were not al-.| lowed to accept them in the State ; schools, to take them out in their own schools. The New Zealand Government' anparently did not want these brilliant j children of the present or at any future ' time, and the federation had therefore j decided that the efforts of the brothers j and sisters who had educated these ! young folk should not go for naught, j Hence it had decided to,provide the necessary funds for the scholarships. This statement has been brought under the notice of the Minister of Education (Mr Parr), who remarked that it, was clearly a perversion of the facts. As ! the law stood, said the Minister, any Catholic child who won a scholarship , had the same right as a child of any : other religion to take tip the scholar- ' ship in a State secondary school. If, as i was sometimes the case, a child of the Catholic religion was not allowed by its { parents to take the scholarship in a J State school the Education Department j could not be blamed. It was certainly j incorrect under such circumstances to ' svv that the New Zealand Government "did not want these brilliant children. 33 As a matter of fact, said Mr Parr, he would be only too pleased to see them taking up scholarships in the State I schools. The State offered free scholarships to Catholic in common with other children, and it was not its fault if sTich ' scholarships were not taken up. —Dominion.