A SECTARIAN EDUCATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9927, 17 September 1895, Page 3

A SECTARIAN EDUCATION.

TO THE EDITOR. —Let aomo people. endeavour to gainsay as they may, but the fact still remains, namely,. that m the present educational system of this colony, we have a sectarian education, and that of tho worst possible

form. When the majority of the New Zealand Parliament of 1877 voted tha.t simple. Bible reading should not be permitted in the ■: public schools, that majority, in so voting, were the promoters of untold barm to. the colony, in both its moral and its social welfare, for these two are alike inseparably united. The hope of a country is its young, and if the young are deprived of what becomes a necessity to either their physical, *> their moral, social, or religious growth, then, the nation itself must inevitably 1 suffer. This dire mistake has been made in New ; Zealand for 18 years past, and the very natural fruits of the same are now plainly apparent to all who take any trouble to observe them. In forcing a purely secular education on the people,, the Parliament of 1877 must have been woefully blind to the consequences of their majority vote. The true position to-day is, that we have played ourselves into the hands of the atheists of the colony, 'for they only— to our shame be it said—nave won , the day. Here is the spectacle of a Christian country having handed over all its rightful claims as to how its children shall be taught and trained—for these two, be it ever remembered, are inseparable the will of a sect which, above all others besides, is repugnant and poisonous. Thus our education system { is now really sectarian, and, as before stated, of the worst kind. Next, how can the Roman** Catholic difficulty be reasonably met ? Easily. Defined portions of the Sacred Scriptures for daily reading may be agreed upon, such as the Book of Genesis, the whole of the Psalms, and the Books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, the four Gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles. The national British Bible to be used,, but where there may happen to be, say, a three-fourths majority of Roman Catholic "* children in a school, there, if desired, the Douay version ; and, in all schools the said reading to be subject to a conscience clause, and, at the opening school hour. Some such arrangement would undoubtedly . commend itself to all British born and unfettered Roman Catholic parents. Whether it would do so equally to the priesthood remains, of course, an open question but then, ib must here be remembered, that 'this is a one-man-one-vote colony! It seems plainly evident from the large number of petitions on this important matter which are this session pouring into Parliament, that a great majority of persons in this colony—parents chieflyare thoroughly dissatisfied, if not disgusted, with our present wholly secular, practically godless, and non - character - forming public education system. As it now exists, boys and girls may leave school at the age of 13 or 14 years,_ in an utter state of blank -as to God-fearing principles of right aud wrong, as also chartless regarding how to steer in life. In course of time many of these come to be parents, and, in the majority of cases, what parents ! Having unguided and only partially enlightened consciences themselves, they are thereby rendered almost totally unfit. in many instances to guide, train, and command their | offspring. Let us earnestly hope and pray that 1895 may witness some radical change in our present most woefully deficient public school am, etc., N.Z.