HOW EDUCATION IS PROMOTED IN NEW ZEALAND.

Colonist, Volume XX, Issue 2398, 8 June 1878, Page 3

HOW EDUCATION IS PROMOTED IN NEW ZEALAND.

To the Editor of'th* Colonist.

Sib, —After twenty-eight years of a flourishing existence, St. Mary's Schools, thanks to the new Education Act, mutt be fettered and crushed down.

The new Education Aot coming into force on the Ist of July next, or, in other words, the Provincial system, under whioh St. Mary's Sohools had been for^ years working in a manner most satisfactory to the public and to the Inspector of Fublio Sohools, haring been abolished with the marked dissatisfaction of the Province, I beg to state, for the information of the Protestant parents who hare hitherto sent their children to St. Mary's Sohools, that I am obliged to alter the system hitherto punned in this establishment. , ■ •, ;.\' : ,'i. •''!;";."//" '■/■/ The new Act, under which I am at liberty to plaoe St. jMary's Sohools, by its unjust provisions, necessitates, as it does Catholics in other. towns of the Colony, the refusal of. a grant, which can only be received at the expense of violating my conscience. Until now, qur schools being separate schools, according to the amendments of the Act, we had the control of the books and teachers; but now, by the new Act, we should have' to receive from the new School Board, books in whioh the Catholio religion, here and there,' is reviled, its history falsified,' and; in many eases, its ministers misrepresented. It may be alleged that the system will be purely secular, but! I maintain that it cannot,; because the books used are of the character above described. Besides, we would be exposed to receive from the new Board masters and mistresses ' in Jwhose hands we could not trust the faith and education of Catholic children.

I am glad to avail myself of this opportunity for acknowledging the kindness and fairness of the Central Board, with whom our sohools hare been working whilst under the Provincial system; but now, we hare not before us the same security nor tbesame means of protection. ,We prefer therefore 1 ;to open our sohools under a system, whioh will be independent of the Governmsnt,, and "which wilk :ier< able us ' to»' bonduet them -at *t»ur; owD^lWretionl^ I beg also to thank the Protestant parents, who bare > ieat tueuc ohildtoa to St. HUxft ddioo]i» and hivrt

given us their hearty support for the past twentyeight years, without having preferred a single instance of attempted' proselytism or undue interference^ with the religious conviotions of the children they had placed under our charge. , , • < ■ .-

It may be remembered that, from time to time, I published in the papers that, although I contented ot place St. Mary's schooli under the operation of the Provincial system, yet I would aupport the denominational wherever and whenever it would be practicable. Now lam glad to ice that lam forced into it. .1 am glad, because it is a system whinh will suit our principles and views. Howerer, lam foroed into it because we are not prepared to go to,the expense, and yet we must do it unless we sacrifice our principles and violate the dictates of bur conscience. We are not prepared to go to the expense, because we shall receive no aid nor any assistance from c Go* rernment who call themselves 'liberal^ but who, by most unjust, and tyrannical measures, hare, framed an Aot of Education by which Catholic parents and Catholic teachers are excluded from,eueh schools, except at the expense of 'their- religious convictions. And yet, "New Zealand Catholics," as states' a contemporary, "are compelled to pay in on*'year £30,000 to maintain a godless, system .of education; from | which they derive no benefit whatever; whiok excludes' every Catholio book and every scrap'of Catholio literature from its halls; praotically elotei these halls against ■ Catholio children and Catholic teachers; and absolutely ignores, even as an kistorical fact, the very existence of the Catholio Church:' Nor is this all.1 The New Zealand Government, which so unmercifully fleeces its Catholic subject* to. promote anti-Catholio and godless education, absolutely refuses to give one shilling, even of their own money; to help Catholics in supporting their own Christian and Catholic schools." In Catholio tohools, children, indeed, are taught that there is a God ; that they have to serve Him, and keep His commandments; that that God will reward the good, and punish the wicked; that to Him they must offer their studies, as well as their' other works during life ; that they must ask Him to' make them succeed and prosper. But they, are also taught all the branches of secular instruction which are taught in Government sohools, or any other school of the same standard ; and after school business is over, they have to thank God for the favors reoeived, and offer to His glory all they have learned.By this method, Catholics have the control of their books and teachers, and see that their children receive together good secular instruction grounded upon re-, ligion.j It is no wonder if many geod Protestants prefer to send their children to such Catholio schools, rather than send them to godless schools, where by the new Education Act they will nut be permitted to bear of their Maker, nor to learn the duties they owe Him. , Meanwhile, in opening our Catholio schools, we shall eadeaavor to make arrangements, as much as possible, to enable Protestant children, who would wish to attend them, to do it at the time whan secular instruction will be given. • , ■ ; Further information as to fees, Ac, will be given by advertisement at the end of this month. - ' I am, &c., • A. M. Gabw, Nelson, June 7th, 1878. ■ < Catholic Priest. ' Beet tEoox Sugar.—ln a letter to Sir - Julius, Vogel, the Hon. Mr Macandrew writes on the above-named subject as follows :-i-Sir, —From the notice enclosed herewith, jou will observe that it is proposed to pay a bonus of £10,000 towards,inducing a , commencement, of the manufacture of sugar in New Zealand. I hare to request that you will be so good as to give this notice such publicity in the United Kingdom and' on the Continent as you may deem adrisable. - There is every reason to think that if a payable market could be found for the beet, there are farmers in various parts of New Zealand now who would produce, it to an . extent sufficient to manufacture a great part of the sugar required for home consumption. It may' not be out of place to state that there are individual farmers in some parts ; of the colony^ having as much as 2000 acres under turnip crop., I believe that in the Southland district especially, as well as in other parts of the colony, there would be little difficulty in contracting for a very largo annual, .supply of beetroot at a,fair price. Could you not induce such men as ' ' Mr Duncan, the great sugar-refiner in London, to take the matter up ? lam persuaded there is,an opening for the highly-remunera- • tive employment of. a very large amount of > capital in tha production of sugar in the colony.; ■ Russian Military Preparations.—The . Berliner Tageblattst&tes that a firm in Berlin has just entered into a contract with the .Russian Government for the supply of 200,000 tents for the use of the Russian army; 5000 being delivered every week. Several large sheds have been hired by the firm in question for the accommodation of the workpeople employed, and a large number of these latter have been engaged. . The linen is to be supplied by factories in Silesia. Negotiations are also being carried on with ' a view to concluding a contract for a second 200,000 tents, and also for the supply of a large quantity of woollen rugs; while another firm has received an order for a number of shovels and other entrenching tools.

Space-measuring.—lmagine a railway from here to the sun. How many hour* is the sun from us ? Why, if we were to send « a baby in an express train, going incessantly at a hundred miles an hour without making any stoppages, the baby would grow to be a boy- —the, boy would grow to be a man—the man would grow old and die—without seeing the sun, for it is a distance mote than a hundred years from us. But what is this compared to Neptune's distance? Had Adam and Ere started by our railway at the creation to go from Neptune to the sun at , the rate of fifty' miles an hour, they would not hare got there yet, for Neptune is more than 6000, years from the centre of our system. ißut we are !getting into too large numbers again; we must hare some swifter servant than a railway to measure apace for us. Light, will answer our purpose, for ' light travels from the son to the earth in eight minutes. Eight minutes, then, counting by light, are equivalent to 100 years, of •, railway express speed. It would take about • * four hours to go from the sun to Neptune. ■l Among the stars we shall find that the nearest is Jibree years' off, counting by light. —Household Words. . - <••