The Otago Witness.

Otago Witness, Issue 1442, 12 July 1879, Page 16

The Otago Witness.

17ITH WHICH IB IiTOOBPOSATBD THE '80UTHEBN > • -■ ■ MEROUBY.'

DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, 12th JULY, 1879.

The Roman Catholics have made a grand demonstration on the Education question at a most opportune time — just on the eve of an election for tho City. Not that we think an election at this juncture ought to turn entirely or _even_ chiefly on the Education question ; we think there are matters of far more immediate and pressing importance to consider, and that the best man should be selected to represent our interests at this critical period, entirely independent of his views on the Education question. The Roman Catholics, - however, think otherwise, and so, do- those few tailors of Tooley street who have set; themselves ostentatiously forward to represent ' the purely secular view ; and thus the Education .question will, however much we may deprecate it, have a good .deal to do with tho voting for the respective candidates. Putting asid,e for the px-esent this political aspect of the matter, wo cannot help expressing pur. sincere ,ojf admiration of

the consistency and determination with [ which Bishop Mohan has urged the views of his Church on his followers, and of the zeal which he has managed to evoke among the laity. We, however, of course differ fundaI mentally from him as regards the character of our present national I system, which we have over and over again maintained is not godless, but which, on the other hand, in the very Dature of things, could not be, and ought not to be, distinctively religious. We hold it as an axiom that the State cannot teach religion, and should not attempt it. We also hold that whatever theoretical objections can be urged against the State undertaking the secular education of the people — and such objections have been taken by able .men, — practically the duty lias been forced upon it by the neglect of parents and societies to provide properly for it without Government interference. As it is essential to the safety of the Slate that children should be taught, and as they are not universally or even generally taught so long as the State holds aloof, it has become a recognised necessity, scarcely now dis- | puted in* any quarter, for the State to step in. But, sayg the Roman Catholic, " I am quite willing that the State should go so far as to provide funds for education out of the general taxation j but so far as we are concerned we must have the control over the expenditure of our fair share of the

general education fund." If the statement made at Tuesday's meeting is correct, there are 65,000 Roman Catholic 3in New Zealand ; that represents about onesixth of the population : supposing it . also to represent the due proportion of taxation — of which wo have some doubt, — the Roman Catholics, according to their own showing, would b8 entitled to handle about £35,000 per annum, which represents about a sixth of the direct vote for educational purposes. That is not a large sum to fight over, we admit, and if the question were only how we could placate this one religious body, and relieve society of a continuous sore, wo should' be inclined to say, " Take it and go." But directly the Roman Catholic is thus satisfied a host of other claimants spring up, whose claims rest on precisely similar grounds. Are we then justified in virtually destroying the national system to please one section of the community 1 All the arguments about flagrant injustice ; not being allowed to do what they like with their own ; or, as one speaker quaintly put it, " having to put their hands into one breeches pocket to support a system that they don't like, end into the other to support a system that they do," proceed on the assumption that the State has no right to subordinate the parts to the whole, and to prefer the welfare of tho body politic to the welfare or supposed welfare of a particular, limb. " What harm," says the Homan Catholic, "can tho granting of our claims do to the Colony V — " Every harm," is tho reply; "for it would virtually destroy our national system of education and substitute for it one in every way inefficient." The State in some aspects, and we think this is one, is to be regarded as an individual, and in this case the parts merge in the whole. The majority rules 1 , it is true, but ifc rules for the. whole, not for any particular part, and only because practically no other course is possible without anarchy and confusion. If the majority tried to force the conscience of ths minority by imposing a religious faith upon it, then it would be open to grave censure, but if it actively interferes with no one's conscieuce, but impartially offers the same privileges alike to all, we cannot see what ground there is for the cry of religious persecution. In spite of what Dr Mohan say.", we do nob "b'licve that any Roman Catholic offering himself or lifrself to the Education Board as a teacher would now find any disability resting upon him .or her on that account. It is not that the State in thus acting with impartial indifference towards all religions ia irreligious, but rather what, from the analogy of the word " atheistic," we might be be permitted to term " areligious." It is impartially blank on the subject of religions, and entirely ignores all sectarian difference?, wholly and solely because it can be no judge on such

matters. If the Roman Catholic cannot accept this position, but says either that the State should not educate at all, or else that it should

teach the true religion, then we say,

" You aro as hopelessly outside the generally accepted creed of modern States j as if you insisted on your right, as es- } sentiflJl to , jq\\v conscientious religious

1 belief, to sacrifice a baby every Sunday, in your worship." We cannot permit you, in carrying your own convictions into force, to destroy the foundations on which, we deem our society is built, and National Education is one of these foundations. Yet we readily admit that every practical statesman must regard ifc as a grave element of danger that any large section of the community should continually fret under a supposed injustice. We cannot sympathise with those extreme religionists who chuckle at tlieir Roman Catholic brethren being left out in the cold. We believe there is conscience at the bottom of tlieir demands, though we wish it were a le?s one sided and more enlightened conscience. The very name oi' a " godless " education must be repugnant to every right-thinking man, or at least to every religious man, and, however unjust he may hold the appellation to be as applied to the national system it has got to be accepted by Roman Catholics as a corieot designation, We should gladly, therefore, if wo could, suggest some via media by which the consciences of Catholics could be satisfied. But we cannot, we confess, formulate any such via media without running the great lisk of endangering the national pystem, and once more bringing us back to this point, that for want of a complete and centralised organisation, a large proportion of the population would be growing up in ignorance. It may be nothing to Roman Catholics that the children of Jews, or Protestants, or Freethinkers, should grow up ignorant and untrained in secular knowledge, but it is much to the State. If Roman Catholic schools alone were carried on side by sido with the State schools, and aided by Stategrants, nogreat harm could, so far as we can see, reaulfc. But what about the Churcli of England, and the Presbyterians, and the Wesleyans, and the Freethinkers, if they all claim, as they justly may, the same privileges 1 What then becomes of the national system I—and1 — and wanting a national system, what about Ginx's baby 1 If the ship will carry us all, well and good, but if the safety of the vessel requires — our Roman Catholic brother — that we should throw you overboard, we have no alternative but reluctantly to do it. " Scdus pojndi stqjrema lex," sAI that is left to you is to try and convince us that the .ship is not endangered, or that ifc is we, and not you, who should be thrown overboard.

From the letter of a correspondent, which we publish in another column, and from other sources, wq understand that a good deal of dissatisfaction is felt by the minors of tho Kyoburn and its neighbourhood at their district having been recently gazetted a special mining district for homestead purposes, under the G6th section of the Mines Act, 1877. The section in question is a novelty in tho Mines Act, j and w&s introduced with the view of enabling those who, previous to the passing of the Act, had made homes for themselves ,on the goldfields, to obtain some sort of title to the land they had cultivated. Such an object was doubtless commendable, but it is obvious the provision would have to be operated upon with extreme caution, as there is always, from the circumstances, tho danger of largely alienating auriferous land. Under the clause, 50 acres may be purchased in fee simple at £2 per acre, or 320 acres may be taken up under the agriculturallease or deferred- payment system, the protecting stipulation being that "no valuable mines of gold or other mineral" shall be known to exist on the land. Of course a good deal depends upon tho interpretation that is put upon this clause. If it is taken to mean that there must be actual workings of gold, coal, or other mineral on the ground, then, indeed, it is easy to see how, by means of theso proclamations of mining districts, the whole of the goldfields may be broken up and alienated in every direction. On the other hand, tho commonsense rendering, and tho only one compatible with the policy hitherto pursued in connection with the conservation of our goldfields, would seem to be that no land in mining districts should be alienated so long as it can be said to be fairly auriferous— that is, if gold or other mineral be known to exist in it in Buch quantity as may afford a reasonable prospect of its being worked at some future time, evon though it may not bo so worked now. The case mentionod by our correspondent is one which shows the difficulty likely to attend this sort of conditional settlement upon the goldlields. An applicant, under tha shelter of the rnnholder'a consent, applies for a considerable section of land close to a mining centre. The inhabitants object, and the Waste Lands Board, recognising the force of their objections, induce Ihe applicant to withdraw. Under the GGth cause the same application again conies on, and, unless a very broad and common- sense view is taken of the meaning of the Act, is probably granted, tho whole onus of objecting by petitions and otherwise being thrown upon the minors, who are thus kept in a perpetual state of agitation. With regard to this special mining district of Kyeburu, a disagreeable featuro of it , is^that it seems to have been proclaimed J

purely for the benefit of one individual, and apparently that individual was the only person in the district who had any knowledge that it was going to be so proclaimed. The miners, who might be supposed to havo some interest in the matter, were entirely unaware of it, so that they were not allowed the opportunity to urge anything against before the mischief was done. It seems to us that the 66th section of the Mines Act requires amendment; and that such amendment should take the form of eliminating the agricul-tural-lease and deferred-payment clauses, and limiting the quantity of land which may be acquired absolutely to 50 acres, subject, as at present, to the reduction even of that, or its entire disallowance, by the Guvernor-in- Council. If land for settlement is wanted in the Kyeburn or any other mining diatrict, let land be at once thrown open in blocks suitable for tho purpose, and to which there can be no objection specially urged in the mining or any other public interest ; but let us at tho same time avoid the contradiction of squandering money with one hand upon the conservation and extension of the goldficlds, and destroying with the other what we have already conserved.

At his meeting at Balclutha on Monday night Mr Thomson made tho announcement that ho intonda to retire from the Waste Lands Board. As we said a few days ago, it was fitting that one of the three M.H.R.'s who have seats at the Buard should retire, in order to allow of a respectable proportion remaining to attend to the business of the body while Parliament is in session ; and we are therefore pleased to sco that Mr Thomson has sacrificed himself upon the altar of public duty. Without going so far as to express any opinion as to whether the result will or will not be a " survival of the fittest," it may be pointed out that hia retirement comes with a certain amount of grace. He ia the youngest, as regards tenure of office on the Board, of the three members of the Assembly. Messrs Bastings and Green are land Board members of long standing, and to that extent held a right to retain their seats beyond that possessed by Mr Thomson — of whom, however, it may certainly be said that he was a particularly painstaking, attentive member, who in all integrity strove to administer the land laws in the manner best calculated to promote true and healthy settlement. We should imagine there need be little difficulty in filling the gap caused by his retirement. Here, in Dunedin, we are honoured with the presence in our midst of two past Ministers of Lands, both of them* men whose addition to the Board would be a great gain to it. We allude, of course, to Mr Donald Reid and Mr Stout. By Mr Reid's retirement from the Education Board, however, it i 3 perhaps justifiable to conclude that he intends for the future all too strictly to devote himself to his business. There would thus appear to be no hope of his accepting a Beat were it offered him. But we should hope that with Mr Stout tho case is different. There is no man more fitted than he to occupy a seat at the Boar."), and Otago might congratulate itself wore he to become a member. We hope to hear in due time that Mr Stout will be the successor of Mr Thomson.