SECTARIAN SCHOLARSHIPS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13510, 4 February 1908, Page 6

SECTARIAN SCHOLARSHIPS.

THE OSULLIVAX BEQUEST. The " New Zealand Times" (Wellington) on Saturday published the following letter from Sir Robert Stout, Chancellor of the New Zealand University:— I would not have troubled you with anv re.marks oil the O'Sullivan bequest, and the action of the University Senate in accepting the gift, had you not expressed the hope that- other similar benefactions would be forthcoming. I am afraid you do not realise the serioxtsness of the step that has been taken.

The New Zealand University is a -secular institution. It is not lawful for it to impose on any person :uiy compulsory religious examination or test as a. condition for the obtaining of any University distinction. By accepting the O'Sullivan bequtst, the fund becomes a University fund, and the O'Sullivan scholarship a University scholarship. In framing the O'Sullivan scholarship statute the Senate must declare- that all candidates for the scholarship must (submit to a. religious t*'st. (Jan the Senate legally pas/S iuich a. statute? I did not a.sk the; Senate to answer such a quest ion. The intention and spirit of our University Act is, however, plain. The University was to lx> a purely secular institution. It was not to say to any candidate for Unive.isitv distinction, we cannot recognise you unless you profess a certain religion. Under * the O'Sullivan scholarship statute this v.ill now have to be done. And this principle, having been affirmed, what is to be donei with other "imilar ljenefactions? Suppose a member of one of the most, recent Christian churches—the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (called Mormons) — were to give a sum of money to found a. scholarship for the benefit of his co-re-ligionists, the Senate would, following the O'Sullivan precedent, have to enact a Mormon scholarship statute and determine who was a Mormon. Again, suppose a Protestant left- a bequest- for a scholarship to be confined and limited to Protestants, the Senate, in perhaps euphemistic language, would have to "rame a statute with the unlovable phraseology that "No Catholic need apply." And the >Senate would have to letermine who are Protestants, not an iltogetlier easy task, if recent controversies in England are considered, any more than who in a, Catholic can be asily decided in the face of "Modernism" discussions and the recent Papal Kncyclieal. There was no need of the Senate tr> accept the O'Sullivan bequest. If my uggestion had been, accepted, the ■ be■juest would have been maintained for :he benefit of Catholic students, but it would not have been a University sclioarship. The Public Trustee would have been the Trustee and the fund a private one. I believe a great injury may be done to Catholics by the University accepting the bequest. By that, acceptance the University invites Protestants to make sect arian gif'us, that is, to make it a condition of their benefactions that Catholics be excluded from participating in and that "Xo Catholic need apply." In my opinion the University should have so acted as to have discouraged sectarian trusts, anil have mainwined the provision in its Act that- for 110 Univ-ensity p.cholar.ship should there be any religious examination or test. If there are to be sectarian scholarships, let sectarian institutions manage them. I believe the founding of the O'Sullivan University scholarship is an injury to the University, a wrong to all religious bodies in a minority, and the creation of a precedent that must lead to heartburnngi?, animofiiticc-, and difficulties in the near future