CATHOLIC SCOTLAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 158, 12 May 1876, Page 15

CATHOLIC SCOTLAND.

ihe toliowing extract from the report of the British Government School Inspector for 1874, refers to the Catholic schools in the middle and lower wards of Lanarkshire, and is of interest as showing the vigorous condition of Catholic education and progress in Scotland • bix or seven non-public schools are at present being erected iv the district, chiefly by the Eoman Catholics, who have shown Wr great energy of late m providing schools for the children belonging to ?L S UrC ? 1 ' By J the ndnesS of Ar <*bishop Eyre lam furnished with the authorised statistics from his Secretary, Mr. M'Farl&ne The number of the Catholic population in my district is about 422,700 Ihe following table summarizes the progress of Catholic school building during the past four years : Since Ist January, 1871, twenty new Oafchouc schools have been opentd at a cost of £52,912 9s 9ia, the number of chi dren being 7,584 ; a»d four more new schools ar£ being built at a total cost of £8,810, the number of children being 865— making a total cost of £61,722 9s 94d with 8,449 children. It thus appears that the average cost of these twenty-four schools is £2 571 15s 45d4 5 d each, and that the average number of children they (according to regulation) can each contain is 362. These schools are fitted up and furnished with all the modern desks and apparatus, and, indeed so far as fabrics are concerned, they will bear comparison with any school under my inspection. The abovo facts attest the extraordinary efforts the Roman Catholic Church is making for the education of her children, while Catholics, like all others, are rated for the public schools. There are now on my list thirty Catholic schools, and five will soen be added. Numbers of the Arabs of the street (Irish) are pouring into the Catholic schools, and it is wonderful to see how soon they get tamed into habits of civility, obedience, and attention to lessons. These schools afford the best of accommodation a very important fact in consideriag discipline; but they also show a systematized and regimental regularity in all school things— a fact not less important."— 'Catholic Citizen.'