THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1875.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2155, 30 November 1875, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1875.

.One of the " Viatora^wtioso contributions on educational^uestionsihaveadorned—or not—the columns of the Star, states, and with reason, that amongst all the taxes imposed.by the Legislature of .New Zealand none has been .more;obnoxious than that raised-for educational purposes, or words to that effect. In this he is right, no doubt,'!ahd*w» hare ere this spoken as emphatically: as in us lay against a tax as unfair to the community at large as it, is disliked by those who habitually take up their parable against it.' It has this and this only to be said in iti favour, that it may serve to open the eyei of reticent voters against the effete form of Government yclep^ Provincialism—to the evils of a system •which cduld ,'. originate and, as long as it had .the power, perpetuate a tax-repugnant to a, sense of justice, unfair. in its working, and inadequate in its results. So far we throw in our lot with "Viator," but it is a case with us as with Sing Canute of "thus far and no further/ We confess that on reading the commencement of " Viator's " letter. we, /thought that he intended to show some Jof the evils of which he complained,'and perhap3 tn« readers of this article may at the commencement think, that we intend to do : the same. However, " Viator " did not, and we db! not intend to do so either. Enough, almost for the'present has been said, by us in. condemnation of a tax which we believe all alike condemn; but unfor-: tunately "Viator " does not «b much condemn the tax itself as the means of apportioning-it when it has once been raised; 'a strong convert apparently to the Jesuitical doctrine of doing evil that good may come, for he does not so much object; to the injustice of the-tax itself, if when the injustice haY been . Committed and .the tax collected it is apportioned iii a manner-to ..agree with ? his own private views* -In other' words, if .when once the collectors have handed over the halfrsovereigns of the luckless bachelors and sovereigns of the| : still more luckless benedicts, a goodly proportion of these • shall be handed over towards promoting the teaching of the Boman Catholic faith in the colonial schools^ : "Viator "objects to secularism. Well, many do that,: but unfortunately no.on c can devise the means whereby secularism can be abolished, unless by those which are unjust—not to, say tyrannous—to all denbmihationsexcept the favoured one.- We must either have one of two things—religious teaching or secular teaching. We all wish for some. religious teaching; the only question is what; but unhappily this " what" is one which as far as we have learnt admits of no answer. It needs not many words to shov/how unfair denominational teaching . must be to all denominations save one. The parents, of Catholic, children would object and naturally too to have them instructed in the :doctrines of the Church of England. The Wesleyans and the Presbyterians, would in like manner differ among themselves, and, so on with other sects, whether dissenters of older growth or some of the mushroom-like schismatics which seem daily to'be springing up.f Why even in England, where there is. a State Church—and where, if any--where, denominational teaching might at least be acquiesced in, even if it were not advocated —it. has been found necessary to do away with it to a very great extent in order to meet the views of the people; and though it is true that a Liberal Government brought in Secularism; still a Conservative Government has not done away with it. If, oa the other hand, it be objected that the children be simply taught to read the Bible, and that matters of formulary and doctrine be-reckoned as inadmissible, we ail know how hard it is when once our own minds are convinced, to avoid ' forcing our own convictions on the minds of others, and more especially'to an enquiring child would it be found to be impossible 'to explain somo of the most common-place passages in the Bible without oflemiiug Ike rievs of some one or

more of the opposite parties; nay, even in the very reading of the Bible itself, without one word of explanation, there are difficulties which cannot be overcome; and a clergyman at the Thames, to show \ how far this sort of thing can be carried,-i refused to have anything to do with the j proposed new Ladies College :if the "Lord's Prayer,'' as it occurs in the Bible, was allowed to be taught tosthe, pupils. But, says "Viator," let us, who are Roman Catholics — let us ) have. a.„Jus^. 0 „pronprtipnv , o/...the rates ' I according to our numbers or according to I our payments, and let us do what we like with it.,„ Surely this is fair: that we should have our own money to teach bur own children tas ewe like ? Equally can we say that if this, at first sight equitable plan, were^to be carried out, there would be little pr no public education in the province, whether secular pr denominational. Say, for instance, that the Romau Catholics were to collect a fifth part of the entire rates, or numbered.a fifth part; of the population, and so expected to receive a. fifth part -of the amounts-col 1 lected, what would be the result ? -Why, of course the Church of England, the Presbyterians, the Wesleyansj &c, would want exactly the same thing for themselves, and the amount of public money thus divided would be totally inadequate iosfurnish education of tahy sort' or kind whatever. Take for instance any small district where .the Central Board find great difficulty in keeping even one school going, and suppose'this district was split up, we will say intolaiout four parties— it might easily be split up into a great many more—each clamouring to have their own forms and ceremonies taught to the exclusion of pthers, how could Hhe Board^ on the ' appbrtionj ing 'principle preserve any ' educational building It may be that they; are enabled to set aside £106 for the teacher of the.distfict;'; well of-this £100 each of the four denominations wants £25. What is to be .dbnef^Thej districtcannot? per^ baps support more than one school, and £25 is .a totally insufficient sum to get the services of; a master :fpr^: and so the parts apportioned become useless, whereas in one lump sum it might doa'^reat good. We should like to see religious instruction given in bur public schools as well as* any one, and we may confess, it would be the religious instruction of our own particular denomination that we should like.to see. We see at the, same time that we could not have this without causing heart-: burnings and jealousies without'number; and so, being neither egotists nor fools, we are content to take matters as they are until some one can suggest a remedy for a state of things for , which we ourselves can devise no absolute cure. Better to have secular education, which suits the, majority and insures the working of some system, however primitive, than to see the rising generation growing up in ignorance owing to a senseless struggle for the teaching of religious dogmas;

We learn by telegram from r Auckland that Sir (George Grey's address at the Choral Hall last night is much spoken of. As intimated by our special correspondent yesterday, Sir George declined to enunciate the policy of the Opposition. We regret wo have not space in our present issue to give even a resume of His Honor's address, but we shall have something to say on it when we receive the verbatim reports. Sir George evidently pleased his audience ; he is quite able to do tbat, having a charming manner and an extensive knowledge of mankind. Sir George has shown his generalship by speaking as representative of City West instead of leader of the Opposition. •