A VOICE OF WARNING.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 34, 20 December 1873, Page 6

A VOICE OF WARNING.

A correspondent from Temuka, Canterbury, in a- letter dated the 10th December, asks us to publish certain statements he makes in reference to a country school and school' committee in that district. The facts are these :—: —

The master of this school, it appears, ' had insisted on teaching the Bible to Catholic children, and compelling them to join in psalm-singing. The parents of these children presented a petition to the school committee, complaining of this tyrannical interference with the religion of their children. The committee treated the petition with indifference — nay, contempt — and affirmed Protestants were the majority, and should have their way. These Catholics then declared they would withdraw their children, 25 in number. The withdrawal of these children would bring the number in attendance below that required by law, and have, the effect of,

reducing the master's salary to the extent of £65. The committee then said the Ordinance provided that instruction S°Ti.i ?IVe? IVe , U , in S&CTed hiatoT y> and that, consequently, the Bible should be read. To this the Catholics replied that there were other afcd better ways of teaching sacred history than the master's explanations of the sacred text and psalmsinging. The fact is that in this district the Catholics are the majority, though, through clever election manipulation, there is only one Catholic member on the committee. For the present the Catholics have succeeded, thanks to the energy of one Catholic on the committee. But were it npt for the determination of the Catholic parents to withdraw their children, and thus compel the Protestants to pay smartly for the education of their children, no redress would -have beeu obtained in this case. The above is a fair specimen of what is going on throughout the country. Wherever teachers *nd school committees think themselves strong enough to trample on the faith of Catholics, they very generally do so. Here is a case in point, and we have not to go far for other illustrations of a kindred spirit. Any one who reads the newspapers must call to mind the recent action of the Kaikorai and Green Island Committees as striking examples. Catholics have no security in Government schools. In these every advantage will be taken of them, and every safe opportunity of insulting their faith and Church will be «agerly seized on both by teachers and school committees. Catholics must abandon all hope of justice in reference to education from the various Governments of the countryGeneral and Provincial— and unite in establishing Catholic schools, no matter how great the sacrißce. The majority ot our fellow colonists, having the power to trample on our rights as Catholics, are determined to do so, in imitation of their co-religionists in Germany and Switzerland.