GRAHAMSTOWN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 21, 20 September 1873, Page 11

GRAHAMSTOWN.

(From our correspondent.) In the course of his sermon at the 11 o'clock Mass on last Sunday (31st August), the Rev. .Father Norris made tlie following allusion to the Education Act in existence here : — ".He would inform them that he had received a letter from His Lordship the Bishop, in -winch he stated that he was endeavouring to procure the services, of a competent master .for the Catholic school of this place. Before, however, the school was in working order, they must be content to send their children to the schools supported by the Government. They all knew that those schools were not fit for a Catholic child to attend. Although, the education therein given purported to be strictly secular, yet it was not so. In the histories that were used, the Catholic religion was defamed and slandered j a Catholic pupil would be taught to believe that hi* religion was a tissue of superstitions and delusions, that the faith delivered once to the Saints, the incorruptible faith, was an institution of the dark ages, that the Pope, the successor of the Prince of the Apostles, was Antichrist and the ' man of sin .' And yet Catholics were compelled to contribute to support such a system of education. The Government would fain wrest the authority of the . parent, and insist that his child should be trained up to believe such things. A constitution that would thus seek to deprive us of our liberty, that would thus seek to throw dust in our eyes, so that : we might not see its aim, was nothing but n tyranical and unjust one. Those opposing us upon the question of education were perhaps under the impression that they were doing good, but were really oppressing us in a violent manner. The Trojan leader feared the Greeks of old even when they brought gifts ; their horse, a sigu that hostilities were to cease, had concealed within it armed men, who, at a favourable moment, made havoc among the unfortunate Trojans. The enmity to the Church was disguised under the semblance of an Education Act, and Catholics should beware of sending their children to the schools under that Act. He hoped that when the Catholic school was permanently opened that parents would not nflglect to send their children ; iv the meantime they should provide for the deficiency by extra instruction at home and at Sunday school.