ANOTHER WARMING.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 35, 27 December 1873, Page 5

ANOTHER WARMING.

Ode learned and liberal contemporary the •, Evening Star' of Dunedin, in its issue of the 18th instant, has presented the public with a choice specimen of learning, taste, liberality, and conciliatory conduct. The * Evening Star' is usually hard upon Christians, particularly when they happen to be ecclesiastics, and though it does not always print the words, our holy religion— injinvei ted commas like the ' Daily Times, its contempt of Christianity and .sneers at those who protest it, are as genuine though a little mure carefully disguised ; but when Catholics cross its path it forgets all decency and prudence, and bursts into uncontrolled fury, as does the enraged bull at the si^ht of the red rag.

Catholics are opposed to the Dunedin High School ; but their opposition has always been open, manly, fair, and based on principle. The world knows what they think about it and it is also clear that their opposition to this Institution has been expressed in language which though strong, has been ever characterised by tenderness and courtesy towards the gentlemen who constitute its staff. Such being the case, it was only natural to expect that its friends would have reciprocated this conduct and these feelings. Such, however, as were inexperienced or foolish enough to entertain this expectation now find themselves grievously disappointed. For their tenderness and courtesy Catholics meet in return with calumny, contempt, and a revival of the old war cry, "No Popery, no surrender." Here is the language in which our respectable and learned contemporary permits itself to indulge, when speaking of the Catholic Church, to which religion and civilization, learning and art, are so deeply indebted. " One " Church, " the Romish for centuries had the direction of national education throughout the civilized world-; and what has been the result 1 Let the history of Europe and Spanish America telL In politics, tyranny, war, and class legislation ; in social life, inequality of condition, luxury and degradation of the people ; in science stagnation; in religion, superstition. "The Church threatened, anathematised and persecuted, but they" — its enemies — "triumphed, and the result has been those splendid discoveries in science, and attainments in art, of which they laid the foundation, and we, their successors, are reaping the rich fruits. Nor has that sect changed its tactics." This extract has been taken from a leader in the 'Evening Star,' written in defence of the High School, and in denunciation of all who are opposed to this inefficient and sectarian Institution. And here it is worth while to examine the relations the ' Evening Star " bears \o this school, and to the Governments, General and Provincial. This journal is a Government organ It reflects and defends the opinions and policy of tbe Hon. Julius Vogel aud Hon. James Macandrew. In the second place it is a strenuous advocate of the present system of education in Otago, as carried out in the High School, and in the Grammar and Common Schools throughout the country. It may be fairly inferred therefore, that this journal knows the sentiments of its patrons and party, and writes in accordance with their inspiration ; that it gives expression to the ideas and principles of the men who constitute the managing and teaching staff in the Government Schools, and that consequently nothing can be more in unison with the ideas, feelings, and principles of our rulers and teachers, or more clearly demonstrative of the extent of their scholarship, than the brutal extract above quoted. In this extract Catholics cannot fail to see a specimen of the teaching prepared for their children in the High School, Dunedin, and the other Government Schools in Otago, and we may add in all New Zealand. Such is the language in which the advocates, patrons and teachers, in these schools speak of the Catholic Church, and which they will employ in teaching Catholic children if they get a chance. Such is the spirit in which this Government system of education has been established. Under it, Catholic children are to be instructed as the children of a Church which inevitably perpetuates war, tyranny, class legislation, inequality of condition, aristocratic luxury, degradation of the people, stagnation in science, and superstition in religion, should be educated, in order that they may be no longer loyal to the Church of Christ, the Church of their baptism, and of their fathers. Here we find one more warning. The organ of the Governments, and of the school authorities, tells us in words at once untrue and insulting the estimation formed of our religion by men who per fas out nefas, are determined to uphold a system of education, whose object is to destroy our faith and to destroy it at our own expense. The High School has fallen into disfavor. Why it is not now necessary to ask, it is a patent fact that of late its friends have been growing fewer and fewer. And so deplorable is its state, that there is only one chance of its surviving the next session of the Provincial Council. Unless the friends of the High School can succeed in arousing a No Popery cry, the Institution is doomed. Nothing else can save it. It is now reduced to the painful and contemptible condition of those charlatans who despairing of securing their election to positioos in the gift of the public on their merits, raise the No Popery cry. For this is a cry that never fails in a non-€atho. ic community, owing to its bigotry arising from its ignorance of everything Catholic, and the prejudices in which

it has been carefully trained. And we entertain little doubt but that this foolish cry, groundless and absurd as it is, will save the High School, and perpetuate indefinitely, inefficiency and injustice. The 'Evening Star,' and its party are wise in their generation, but we have, nevertheless, reason to thank them for this manifestation of their real sentiments towards us. It will open the eyes of a few who were disposed to trust in their honesty of purpose, and in their professions.