"COMING INTO ITS OWN."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18272, 13 December 1922, Page 10

"COMING INTO ITS OWN."

LABOUR PARTY'S PROGRESS.

ROMAN CATHOLIC VIEWPOINT

BISHOP LISTON ON ELECTIONS.

"Thanks be to God, the Labour people, our friends, are coming into their own, and, please God, we too, a minority, will come into our own," said Bishop Listen, in the course of a speech at the prizegiving ceremony of the Sacred Heart College last evening. In commencing his speech. Bishop Listen referred to a dialogue in French that had been given by the pupils, and smilingly said he was afraid he could not understand some of it. (Laughter.) But then one could not understand everything. There was a very distinguished man in New Zealand who did not quite understand what happened last Thursday. (Applause.) While the boys were performfng, he could not help thinking of a sermon preached in Auckland, in which three things were emphasised. One thing was that the world was wrong side up. The second was that it .would have to be put right side up. And, thirdly, L tn* preacher, turning to a collection of, boys such as were in the hall that evening, said, "These are the boys to go and do He felt quite sure that boys like these, who received a very fine secular training and excellent religious training, in days to come were just tho ones to put things right in New Zealand. Their parents and fellow Roman Catholics had kept Christian principles going in a country that was fast abandoning Christianity. In a few years, thanks to the wonderful system of Roman Catholic schools, they would be the only ones who would be keeping the flag of Christianity flying in New Zealand. 9 The bishop mentioned that £450 a year /was being contributed by Marist brothers fo the college. If Marist brothers, in their poverty, could do that, what could not the' rich Roman Catholics in their richness do? He hoped some would do more. A word to the wise was sufficient, and he would leave it at that. (Applause.) In regard to aid toward the Roman Catholic schools, he was, as a New Zealander, honestly ashamed of the country. He found that in other parts of the world, including the British Empire, generous aid was given to Roman Catholic schools, but in New Zealand not even a petty, paltry scholarship could go the way of tnose schools. "We Catholics are contributing toward the State system of education about £370,000 a year," ho aaid. "Some of our children, of course, are being educated in the State schools, and probably £170,000 goes in their education. What of the other £200,000? You would naturally expect that that would go to the places where Catholic parents like to see their children go for education. Not a bit of it. That £200,000 is going to the other schools. That is the injustice. We are not asking favours —there are some people we would never dream of asking favours of—but simply justice. "Perhaps some day our people will wake up and do the right thing. We found that out last week—Slaughter)— and no doubt 6ome time they will do the right thing by us. Thanks be to God, the Labour people, our friends, are coming into their own f and, please God, wo too, a minority, will come into our own." (Applause.)