"COMING INTO THEIR OWN."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18275, 16 December 1922, Page 13

"COMING INTO THEIR OWN."

Sir.—"A Maoriland Worker" need feel no alarm about any supposed agreement letween the Roman Catholic Church ana tie Labour Party, al! of whose members, as far as I am aware, are non-Catholics, the only thing Labour and the Catholi?s have in common is that they have both ucurred the enmity of the P.P A Labour stands definitely for secular education, and therefore ocposes the subsidising of any sectarian schools. It. is indeed gratifying- that Bishop Liston recognises the true worth of Labour; but it his lord-ship thinks that it is prepared to bo dragged at the chariot Wheels of his or of any other church, he is greatly mistaken. Labour will give no consideration to any attempt sect to gam for itself special privileges at the experfse of the rest of the community} Mid, on the other hand, will do evvvthing m its power to discourage the spirit 01 bitter sectarianism which is becoming prevalent in New Zealand. F W C

Slr » —"A Maoriland Worker," in his letter published on December 14, makes an awkward attempt to leave the impression .that, tho Catholic schools are much inferior to the State schools in efficiency. An isolated statistical return proves notning. The percentage of proficiency certificates is a ridiculous basis of comparison, as is proved bv tho fact that the headmasters of a large proportion of the public schools have the power of awarding proficiency passes themselves. It is therefore scarcely correct to implv that the deduction from a comparison of proficiency percentages is based on " examination results." As a matter of fact, Jt is a subject, for wonder to anyone who has an intelligent grasp of educational conditions in New Zealand that tho average efficiency of the Catholic schools is quite equal to that of the public scho Is, aml ,i, an ! confident that this statement would be fully borno out by the testimony ot the State school inspectors who, as true educationists and loyal New Zenia.ide.i- .have taken the. same interest in tno Catholic schools as in their own. Brother Borgia, 8.A., Principal, Sacred /Heart College.

Sir,— 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." So that is Dr. Liston's feelings. Tho cat is now out of tiie bag, the lamb"s skin has been shed, and we see disclosed the fangs of the wolf—but, needless to say, after the elections are over! Now we" know who are the " friends " of the Roman Caihoh: : Church. Does Dr. Liston include in his benediction the Labour Party's communistic Sunday Schools, and in* his blessing the most extreme of the Reds—but one must not, of course, discuss "politics " with the Roman Catholic Church. But if this is what Dr. Liston says publicly, I wonder what he whispers in the ear of his flock when there are no inquisitive reporters about ? I wonder! He also complains about the Government not giving State aid to Roman Catholic schools, but he knows that the primary, and practically the sole, object of the Roman Catholic school is to make the child a •Rpman Catholic, scholastic attainmentbeing a secondary object. If the State agreed to Dr. Liston's suggestion, then I suppose it would be quite proper for the Presbyterians, Methodists, Agnostics, Atheists, Hindoos and others (almost ad infinitum) to each insist upon having their own schools with State aid in each case. In short, it is the aim of tho Church to destroy the present education system. If people want a special religious training, then let them pay for it. Dr. Liston is emphatic about Roman Catholic children receiving " Christian training," and states that " they (tho Roman Catholics) would be tho only ones who would be keeping the flag of Chris- i tianity flying in New Zealand," but, according to Dr. Liston Tablet, Protestants are called " purely out of courtesy, and it is to inculcate such ideas of Christianity in prospective British citizens in a Protestant British Empire that Dr. Liston desires to obtain State aid for their schools. A. Protestant.

Sir,—ln. tho Herald- of Wednesday, December 13, there are two articles that are well worth studying. I will tiVe "Bishop Liston on Elections" first. The bishop ends big- speech, "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." Ho also remarket! that _ "There was a very distinguished man in New Zealand who did not quite understand what happened last If "the very distinguished man" didn't understand, a good many others did. What happened was that instructions were issued by Bishop Liston and his friends that Mr. Massey was to be ousted. In order to achieve this the bishop decided to join "his friends" the Labour people, as they were the only group who desired to break up the constitution of the country. Further, he stated that he was, as a New Zealander, ashamed of his coun.trv, because it didn't provide scholarships for Roman Catholic schools. It isn't sufficient that for fear of offending this minority our schools are purely secular, and no Christian religion of any kind is taught. Bishop Liston also forgets to tell his hearers that this terrible injustice of not providing' the Roman Catholic schools with scholarships is exactly the same treatment that is meted out to all the large private schools in New Zealand. Is he not satisfied by being treated exactly the same a3 the others? Brother Borgia doesn't, think much of our national outlook in this country, but much prefers "the fine, sturdy, self-reliant, national spirit developing rapidly in Australia (and kindly notice) independent altogether of politics"! Then comes contempt for New Zealand because it is still merely a British colony which must take all its inspirations from England. Could anything be more contemptible ? None of that fine, sturdy spirit that tore up the Union Jack and trampled it in the mud. Anyone will readily see how much more peaceful this country would be if our "sturdy lads" took their inspiration from Ireland" instead of England. If Bishop Liston and his friends worked so hard to keep Mr. Massey out of power, what would they do to a man who did show any partiality in his preferments, for I believe an analysis' would show there are a great many more than 14 per cent, of Roman Catholics in our Civil Service at present—that is to say, more than their percentage of tho population as a whole. So they have "come into their own" all right". Were the percentage reversed, we doubt if Protestants would be allowed to abuse the Government of the countrv. Let us hope that at tho next election other sections of the population will "wake up and do the right thing." That is the earnest hope and prayer of no sturdy self-reliant Australian, but of A Mere New Zkalandeh.