THE HIGH SCHOOL, DUNEDIN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 84, 5 December 1874, Page 5

THE HIGH SCHOOL, DUNEDIN.

Mr. Hjlwthoenb has resigned his Rectorship of this school, driven, it is said, to take this step by unjust and ungenerous treatment; and the Board of Education, despairing of finding in Otago, or all N"ew Zealand, a gentleman qualified to succeed him, has commissioned some gentlemen in England and Scotland to select a head master to take his place. As to Mr. Hawthorne, it is not our intention — nor indeed is it our duty — to say much ; with the High School we have had nothing to do. To us it is an alien institution, at once sectarian and godless. But, in justice to Mr. Hawthorns, we feel bound to say that if the school has not been a success the fault does not rest with him ; and we can testify that the conduct of its pupils, as manifested in the play-ground and streets, has proved that, so far as discipline is concerned, his mode of government has been, very successful. As a teacher Mr. Hawthorwe is, we have reason fop believing, both able and willing, and we are of opinion that, had he been supported, as he ought to have been, by thfl parents of his pupils and the Provincial authorities, there would have been no cause of complaint as to shortcomings. To render a school successful, its pupils must be very diligent ; and, to make pupils diligent, parents must not only sea that they really do study and prepare their lessons, but must, moreover, inculcate respect for the teachers, and abstain from all fault-finding as to the school in the presence of the pupils. Has this been the case in Dunedin ? We doubt it. It is the opinion of many — an opinion with which we coincide— that justice has not been done to the abilities and industry of Mr. Hawthorne : and it will be extremely difficult to find one better qualified for the Rectorship than he. But whilst we speak thus of Mr. Hawthorns, we must not be understood as giving any approbration whatever to the system of education under which the High School has been established. On the contrary, in our opinion that system is vicious, and a High School conducted on its principles could

not succeed even though pupils, parents, and masters were everything that a Dunedin public could dssire. Again and again it has been said that the Otago system is an almost perfect system, and here behold a proof of its success. It has been unable in a dozen years to produce a man capable of conducting the High School pf Dunedin. Are none of the schoolmasters of the Province qualified for the post % — are none of the Rectors of our grammar schools 1 What a perfect system, to be sure, it has been !

The Education Board has, it appears, determined on importing, from Oxford or Edinburgh, a bran-new Rector. Have previous importations been so satisfactory that a repetition of the policy should be resorted to ? The Education Board knows ; we do not. But there is a question we may ask — "What precautions have the Board taken to provide a Rector who believes in the existence of God, or in the divinity of Christianity. We have been informed, by competent authority, that some at least of the gentlemen brought from Home during the past few years to educate the rising generation make no concealment of their infidel principles. Are we to have some more of the same way of thinking ; some more •whose mental calibre is such that they think disbelief in God, Christ, and the immortality of the soul something to be proud of, and whose moral elevation, is such that they glory in thinking themselves the lineal descendants of apes. "We sincerely hope that it is not such a one our Education Board is preparing to provide for the High School of Dunedin ; and that the Board is not about to place the education of the sons of a Christian people in the hands of a man who regards their religion as an imposture, and the Saviour of men as a mere philosopher. Yet we have our misgivings. Of one thing only we are perfectly certain : Turk, Jew, or atheist may enter here, but not a Papist. No Catholic need apply. We are glad of this ; we should grieve were it otherwise — for such a school as the Otago High School is no place for a Catholic master or pupil. At the same time we should be sorry to see Christians of other denominations excluded, directly or indirectly, to make way for men without Christian principles.