BISHOP MORAN ON THIS EDUCATION BILL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1342, 18 August 1877, Page 7

BISHOP MORAN ON THIS EDUCATION BILL.

.In St, Joseph's Church on Sunday, the Very Rev. Dr Moran delivered a lecture on the Education Bill now before Parliament. He commenced by reading an article which appeared Iv the hat Lumber of the New Zealand Tablet, and said that, as far as it went, it embodied his views on the subject ; but it was impossible in the leading article of a journal to deal fully with/» matter of such great importance. The hesdfa; to that article was a very strong one, butlLj was perfectly justified, and more than iustiSecL It was " Unjust and TyrrannicaL" The article dealt with several clauses, and points in the BilL which, however, contained other things of a most extraordinary character, and he would point out » few of these, and would first call their attention to the wonderful and extraordinary power with which tbe Bill proposed to arm School Committee?. But how wen these Committees elected? They were compued of seven members, and supposed to be, elected by the householders, and had power to. trample upon the rights and duties of Catholic parents, and to insist that the children of these should be taught Protestant principles unless notice in writing as provided in the Bill were given. They knew now the Committees bad been elected hitherto. Forty or fifty busy bodies — mostly fanatics in education, local option matters, religion, or something else-r-assembled and elected these Committees, which were supposed to represent 23,000 or 24,000 people. The Bill now before Parliament borrowed every bad principle which existed in the lOtago system, and supeiadded clauses which were even worse. Neither the Committees nor the Boards which they would elect would represent anybody but themselves. They were told that this measure was a popular system of education, and threw the administra. tionof the law on tne people themselves. It required no comment from him to show the animosity with which the person who drew up this Bill mast have been actuated. He then proceeded to point out the difference which existed between the way in which School Committees were elected in England and that which the New Zealand Education 80l provides. In the, former case they were chosen in such a manner that everyone of the community could be fairly represented ; but the provision in the Now^ Zealand Bill was of such a nature as not to sire representation to the people, but to trick them out of it The English system also provided^ for the representation of minorities, by permitting people to give seven or eight votes to 'one candidate. The Government of this country had been asked to make a provision of- a similar nature, but had refused to sanction it. He had some further remarks to malja.. regarding reciting of the Lord's Prayer and reading the Bible. He agreed with tbe statement that such a mode uf religious instruction amounted to a farce ; but complying with it was a recognition of Protestant principles, and for Catholics to adopt it would amount to a denial of their faith, because it would be equivalent to saying that the Government aud others besides the Church bad the right to give religious instruction. It also involved the further principle that each bad a right to read the Scriptures and judge for himself, , That was a recognition of a heretical . principle destructive of the faith, and if accepted by Catholics would be tantamount to an - act of apostasy. Yet the Government appeared bent upon this provision more than any other. Ha then pointed out that no writing was necessary for the purpose of procuring exemption from, the historical classes, and went on to say it was clearly the determination of the Bill that Catholics should forswear their religion, abandon their faith, and apostatise. Again, it appeared from this Bill that it was framed especially for the purpose of giving a cheap education to the middle classes, and it contained to provision for the "gutter" children— those only for whom the Government was under any obligation to provide education. If there is a poor child going to any of those schools, and if it happened not to be clean, it would beexpelled. Theft, where was he to get education ? The Government instead of doing what was its duty trampled upon the rights of parents and conscience, and did that which was injurious to Catholics in their dearest interests. He then briefly referred to the meeting of ministers in Dunedin to discuss the Education Bill, and said that they must either not have read it or cue had purposely abstained from making any allusion to those points which he had placed Before those whom he was addressing. The pubuc Press had also studiously avoided making the least allusion to these injustices, and he could not acquit it of having acted designedly in the matter, because, from what had appeared in the papers, he saw that they had roomed the Bill eight or ten days ago. He had not received it till last Monday, and consequently was not aware of those clauses. The Press had kept the public and its constituents in .the dark, and did not let them know the nature ot the clauses which it contained. Ke, as one of the public, had right to complain of thu as being unfair and partial conduct on the part of the Press. He then pointed out that some of the concessions asked for by the ministers, such as the use of the building, were jlready provided for by the BilL It appeared from the Bill that the schools should be open to the visits of inspectors, but never to those of parents or guardians or those who represented parents and guardians, namely, the ministers of religion. It made a close borough of the schools, and allowed none to go there but its own omefois. Should parents visit the schools for the purpose of making enquiries in regard to their children, the masters might turn them out and send them about their business. Referring to the capitation tax of 103 a head on every child of school age up to the number four Inclusive, he said that Catholics sending their children to Catholic schools would have to pay that tax as well, unless the teachers of such schools' were authorised by the Board to grant an exemption certificate. If the Board refused to the teacher the power to issue these certificates, the result would be as he had just stated. Ine mere statement of this fact showed how great was ihe injustice, and how unfair was the 2*™°%°* . Government m reference to this BflL Eve* if the Board did authorise the 'HawtoiW'* certificate of exemption, ib appeared to him that something further was

still required in order to gave the Catholic children from being compelled to go to the Government schools. Having read clause 91, he said that the Bill appeared to him to contain a twofold penalty— the first in regard to the payment of the 10s capitation tax, and secondly, the parents of children attending Catholic schools must satisfy the School Committees that such children were receiving efficient instruction. How was this to be done? He supposed the inspector or the neighbour ing masters must be asked to examine them, and if they refused to grant the certificates, the children would be torn by the police from the Catholic schools, and compelled to go to the Protestant ones. That was the law that was in preparation for them; and, judging from the mode in which the public Press was acting, and from the meetings which were being held, such was the treatment which their fellow-citizens were providing for Catholics. Ha could speak boldly, because truthfully, and asked who, or what denomination in the Colony, had made the same sacrifices to provide, and denied themselves so many things for the sake of, education, as the Catholics had done? Yet there was a vile Press here, and a vile public opinion, which stated that Catholics were the patrons of ignorance. Catholics had provided their children in Dunedin with an excellent education ; but under this new Bill, they must go, cap in hand, to the Board of Education— which was authorised to refuse them — and beg that they might be allowed to teach their own children. He, for example, as head of the Dunedin schools, must go down and bow before the Dunedin School Committee, and bag of them to grant certificates of exemption for Catholic children who were being so admirably taught ! Yet he must do that, or the policeman would be sent, and the parents summoned before the Resident Magistrate, andfined4os forevery week that their children were attending the Catholic schools. A more atrocious and tyrannical measure was never conceived in the mind of man, nor had any such legislation been proposed since the days of the Penal Laws. It was bringing them back to the days of their fathers, when they were obliged to flee to the mountains and bogs to preserve their faith. He then referred to the prosecution of Catholics in Poland by Russia, and said that the action of the Russians might be more brutal, but not more unjust and tyrannical, than what was proposed in this Bill, ncr was there anything worse in existence in Germany. He would tell them one thing more, and that was that this Bill was the Freemasons' programme, and was nothing more or less than an embodiment of their principles and of their determination to destroy the Catholic Church and Faith. The Freemasons in this country were the dupes of those on the Continent, and were misled by them. He knew of no other Government besides New Zealand, except Russia and Germany, which had proposed such an iniquity as this BilL He had placed before them such parts of the Bill as most intimately concerned them, and had great difficulty in restraining himself in speaking uptm it, because it was enough to excite the indignation, and was calculated to arouse evary spark of fire which existed in the soul. He had not language to express his feeling in regard to the injustice with whiehthey were treated by this Bill, as it was trifling with their rights and privileges as subjects of the realm, was an insult to their manhood, citizenship, and faith, and an atrocious attempt to trample upon them. They would ask him what was to be the outcome of this? That was for themselves to say. As their leader and instructor, he had explained the provisions of the Bill, and it was for them to deal with their rulers. He could only rai«e his yoice in denunciation of the injustice of the Bill, and point out the iniquity of the measure, and show them the dangers to which their children were exposed, and also to unmask the designs of those who were determined to destroy their faith, and that of their children. If the Bill became law, he saw nothing for them to do aa Catholics except te adopt one of the alternatives pointed out in the leading article, which were— that it would be necessary for Catholics having children either to remove to localities beyond a radius of two miles from the Government schools, or to flee from the Colony as an accursed Bnot, blasted by the tyranny of a persecuting Government and Legislature. He considered that it would be useless, and a degradation to petition men who, in thia nineteenth century, were capable of introducing such a measure, but they should bear them in mind at the hustings. There was one thing, however, which they could do : that was, to pray, and put their trust in God. He concluded by earnestly exhorting them to adopt that course.