THE SECULARISTS AND EDUCATION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 7, 14 June 1873, Page 5

THE SECULARISTS AND EDUCATION.

Politicians must know very little about education, if we may judge them by their perpetual attempts at legislation on the subject. Every Session of our Parliament, and almost every Session of the several Provincial Councils behold new education bills. Men are at sea and seem utterly bewildered. One would fancy from what is said and done, that up to the present time there had been no schools, no learning, no education in the world. If a man from the moon, unacquainted with our mundane concern?, were to come amongst us and pay exclusive attention to the education agitation, he must irresistibly come to the conclusion that all ages, and the nations of former days, had utterly neglected the education of the people. The teaching and experience of other times and places are ignored ; and go where we may, we encounter turmoil, confusion, and uncertainty. Education bills, educa tion amendment bills, secular education bills, anti-denomi-national education bills — such is the burden of 'Gazettes,' Governor's messages, ministers speeches. One would imagine the world had just arisen from the slumber of ages, during which there were neither schools nor colleges ; nor schoolmasters.

And why is all this hubbub, childishness and turmoil 1 Simply because a most intolerant and tyrannical sect, called secularists, has lately arisen, and succeeded for a time in throwing Christendom into confusion. This sect is, indeed, numerically small, but by its audacity, and an adroit manipulation of the prejudices of all the adversaries of the Catholic Church, it makes up for its inherent weakness. According to the new light, religion should hold no place in man's educa-

tion in public schools ; and it is quite a proper thing to compel Christians to pay taxes for the purpose of making their children infidels. The secularist sect does not believe in Christianity, and therefore no one xxmst teach it in schools J We are not speaking of individuals ; for there are many men very much better than their principles, but of the, sect as *uoh ;— and its principles logically amount to this. For both reason and experience prove, that if children are not educated religiously in our sdaools, the mass of them will inevitably ,grow up infidels. What a prospect for society ! But observe the honesty and consistency of this sect. In *ne Province of Canterbury it is, for the present, in the •ascendant, .and what is its last <eso*pade. A new education • bill was passed in Council ; it is called a " Secular Education Measure," and enacts that in all State schools, history,. ancient and modern, must be taught. We wonder how the teaching of history will be merely secular, how the great religious controversies of all times will be treated, and how. no violence will fee done to the principles and convictions of. any sect or •denomination of Christians. Is the attempt honestly meant ? ' Well, we can only say that the man who undertakes to teach ancient and modern history without coming in collision with any body's religious principles must be very stupid or very knavish, unless, indeed, he confine himself to a barren recital of mere names and dates. But the teachers of the Canterbury Government schools will hardly be permitted to do this. Then, again, what is to be the character of the text books of iiistory % < Collier's History *is used at present ; is that most objectionable book to be continued 1 Who knows but Fox's 'Book of Martyrs' may be introduced, or Robertson, or Macaulay, or Lord' Modern Europe V Where are the books to be found to teach secular history without reference to religion We have never yet seen such works, and we are thoroughly convinced we never shall, nor shall any body else. .For us, therefore, the conclusion is — we must pay our money *o have our children taught that Henry VIII was a glorious reformer, Queen Bess a beneficent sovereign, though she sent 1 our fathers to the gallows because they went to Mass; that Oliver Cromwell was a model ruler, and a humane and godly man ; William of Orange the founder of constitutional government Perhaps an epitome of Froude will be placed in the hands of Catholics, to teach them that their ancestry were ■cowards, and the penal laws justifiable and natural under the circumstances. Ancient and modern history in a secular school ! What a mockery ! Then we are told these schools Are not denominational. How can this be ? are they not secular at least in name, and are not secularists a denomination ?