THE AUCKLAND NEW EDUCATION BILL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 61, 27 June 1874, Page 8

THE AUCKLAND NEW EDUCATION BILL.

_ „.„ „ AuoxiutfCD, 12th Jane. Thm Bill, like tie former one, denies all justice to Catholic*. It oomr pels them to contribute to the support of sohoou to which they oannot in conscience tend tbeir children, and withhold* from them any •hare of the educational funds of the Prorince. At tho close of the debate Mr J. Sheehan, the head of the Provincial Government, being a Catholic, thought it necessary to make some apology for being instrumental in oppressing and insulting his co-religionists. He said bis "instincts" were with them $ but his sense of right or justice compelled him to go with the secularists. It occurred to ma that there was one way in which he ought have prevented his instincts conflicting with his sense of Justice. He might have adopted Mr Poster's principle and given both Secularists and Denominationalists fair play. Mr Sbeehan's notions of justice must be very peculiar and onesided. He had the grace to admit, however, and it is a very important admission with reference to the future of this question, that the Denominations had strong claims on the educational funds at the disposal of the Government. Yet the admission does not come with a very good grace. It has been extorted from him by the force of public opinion, at the close of the debate. He argued that the Denominationalists could do nothing for education iv the countrj places, however much they could do in town. But supposing tnis were universally true, which it certainly is not, why should all aid be withheld from denominations in town and suburbs, where it is admitted 'hey 3an do much for education, and where in fact they are now, though unaided by Government, doing by far the greater portion of the practical work of educating the masses. But there can b« lihle use reasoning any more on the subject at present. Though the educated portion oi the people, as Mr Uarlton said, and all parents, as . B?JlanB ?J lan believed, be in favor of religious schools, the numerical majority of the Council, and the entire Press of the Colony are at the present time, for some reason or other, dead against them, and will hear of nothing but purely Secular schools being aided by the State. In fact, it appears that Catholics at present have as little chance of getting any aid from this Government to their schools, as their predecessors would have had of getting it under the Government of Nero or Dioclesian in Pagan Rome, had they asked it. God's will be done. We must accept the situation. We know our duty, whatever befal ; lei Government do what they please, we must and will stand by our own schools as the b«Bt and only means of protecting the faith and morals of our children, and sheltering them from that ''withering blast of Atheism," which Mr Disraeli assures us is now sweeping over the free of European society. The Catholic school is the natural and necessary appendage of the Catholio Church— and inseparable from it. From the earliest ages of Christianity schools and colleges among Christians have ever been nurseries at once of Christian piety and secular learning. They will ever continue to be so in defiance of all Governments. The purely Secular Government school will either at length become practically a religious and Denominational school, or it will become a focus of infidel principles — engendering an indifference at first, and subsequently an open contempt for religion and its ministers. There oan be no doubt, with any reflecting man, that it is the terror of clerical, more especially Catholic influence and power, which lies at the root of this modem zeal for pure Secular schools among the mass of the r>ple, in the Press, and even in the mind of a few Catholic* like Mr Sheehan. The Secularists perceive that unless they can succeed in driving religion aud its members from the schoolroom — during school hours — their case is a hopeless one. The Ecclesiastical power in that case would certainly prevail. .Experience of the past in America, Ireland and Germany gives us this consoling assurance, that when these Secular schools do not lead to irreligion or positive infidelity they do often conduct their Protestant pupils into the Catholic Church. If it -were even lawful to do evil that good may ensue. Catholics might really advocate the cause of Government purely Secular schoo's— after the manner of Mr «T. Sheehan. But we do not reoognise the lawfulness of any sush course. It is an old and true aajing •* that man proposos, but God disposes." Archbishop Whately proposed, not openly but secretly to himself and others, some half century ago, to ' sap the foundations of the Catholic Church in Ireland, and ultimately to destroy her by tneaus of unsectarian or purely Secular National Schools, supported by the wealth and influence of Protestant England. We know this on the authority of a document under his own handj somewhat imprudently published by his own daughter. What has' keen the result ? Only to strengthen the Catholic Church in Ireland numerically, and add to the political power of her adherents. In this the Archbishop plotted well, but he reckoned without God, and was caught in his own net— a fate which no doubt will sooner or later overtake Bismarck and the Secularists. Generally, the enemies of the Church in New Zealand are only paving the way for her future triumph, whatever be their intentions. — Laic.