A NEW CATHOLIC PARTY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 65, 25 July 1874, Page 9

A NEW CATHOLIC PARTY.

The Scotch Presbyterians of Dunedin of the Secularist party would do well to read and inwardly digest the annexed letter, of their fellowcountryman and co-religionist, Dr Wallis. Pew men in this colony entertain a stronger dislike to the " Papacy" than Dr Wallis. He has of late been preaching .and lecturing against it on various occasions in Auckland, and generally in terms of violent and sweeping condemnation. Yet he has the grace to see, and the honesty to declare that Roman Catholics are doing good service to the cause of Christianity by the stand they are now making agaLast purely secular education in public schools. Hitherto they have been fighting single handed and unaided by other denominattons in the colony. He is not afraid or ashamed to stand forward as our staunch ally in this war aeainst purely secular education. Christians of all denominations and Scotch men in particular, might well feel proud to see the cause of religious education in common schools so well defended as it has been by Dr Wallis, at two great public meetings in Auckland during the past few days. The rev. gentlemen advocates the cause in such°a way as not to betray or tamper with his own creed as a stiff Presbyterian while he does justice to Catholics. There was another Presbyterian minister Dr Bruce, on the platform with Dr Wallis on the occasion of the last of these meetings. He was obviously a trimmer, and blew hot and cold in the course of his speech. He justified the Secularist oartv He said religious teaching was not excluded from the Provincial Edu cation BUI now in force. The Bill was Provincial. The clause referred to read :— " It provided that secular knowledge ' alone ' should be taught in school hours." The cry of the meeting was "that is quite enough, .we want no further explanation." Oh, but said Dr Bruce, let us read further. A provision is made that religious instruc tion may be given " out of school hours." That raised °a strone ex pression of indignation in the meeting. It was felt that this was a mere quibble to sate appearances, and that practically there could as a general rule, be no religious instruction given to these schools in any satisfactory way. This gentleman tried to cast on Catholics the blame of preventing the Bible being read in Government schools He did not explain that to the Bible in itself we have no objection but the contrary ; that we do not wish to interfere with Protestants reading it to themselves. We only do not wish our children to be forced into schools where it is read and explained on Protestant princioles We wish to keep to Catholic schools, and have no objections that Pro' testants keep to Protestant schools. In some places mixed or nurelv secular Government schools may be a necessity. Then of course no religious instruction of any kind can be given " in school hours •" 'but these . o exceptional cases, and ought to be provided for separately or specis y. It has been known that a Catholic working-man in the bush, iept a schoolmaster in his own house for his own children and those near him. The parents wera determined not to send them to a godless school, at any cost. These were real Catholics.

"The worst fallacy of all is to be found in your statement that it 'has long been axiomatic mall civilised communities that education lessens crime. The truth of this statement depends on what kind of education you mean. The only kind of education which the world has had any experience of on a large scale is the denominational and if you mean that that kiud lessens crime, I agree with you ■ but such a meaning is a surrender of the secuhr cause, of which you are the ablest supporter here. If you mean that secular education has the effect of lessening crime, I ask your proofs. Secularism, pure and simple, is an untested novelty. It has never been tried on a scale sufficiently large to justify the rash assertion that it diminishes crime The very limited experience the world has had of its effects indicates the increase rather than the diminution of crime. lam no enemy of secular education, so far as it goes. All my life I have been strivine in my humble sphere, to popularise it, and to diffuse its blessings But I earnestly protest against its being divorced in our schools from the eternal principles ot morality and religion. I have never in all my reading, come across any evidence tending to show that 'merely secular education, separated from religious in schools, has had any diminishing effect on crime. The Mstory of the world and of its civilisation teaches no lesson more planly than this, that education is pervaded by a moral and religious element." — letter of Dr Wallis to the ' Southern Cross' on Secular Education.