The New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1878. INCONSISTENT AND FALLACIOUS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 251, 22 February 1878, Page 11

The New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1878. INCONSISTENT AND FALLACIOUS.

JfifiSKl ROM the time when the fusion between the Otago JflWafMr -^ at ty Time* and the Guardian took place j we ealni§L have been on the watch to discover on what prinSglegiNl ciples the journal formed from their union would aj££Qß c conducted. We have not, however, had long to wait in order to make the discovery, and to perwfe^l ceive that whim, not principle, is the grounds upon winch our contemporary bases his utterances. In fact his sheet has 'assumed the appearance of a sign board, on which are displayed in rotation bills of the most varied character. One day we are led to imagine that he has become liberal and fair, but on the next we find him, if possible, more bigoted and narrow-minded than ever. On the 24th of January last our worthy contemporary published a leader on the education system in which the following passages occurred :—": — " The practical working of the new Education Act will be watched with much interest. Some results will flow from it that are not altogether expected by the general public, and it will take some months of actual experience of its effects to decide whether on the whole the general result is salutary. . . . The effect in towns like Dunedin will be that a considerable sprinkling of " roughs " and " larrikins " will be diffused through the schools, and taint the general atmosphere by which the respectable children will be surrounded. ... If parents who care for the general character and behaviour of their children find that by sending them to the public schools under the new regime they become deteriorated instead of improved, as a consequence of this contact with a lower class of children, they will begin to

doubt whether such a mixture is desirable. This will be especially the case as regards girls, who will be apt to learn a great deal more at school than is down on the lesson roH. We believe the thing will work round again to private schools for the better class of children from the sheer abhorrence of parents to such a dangerous mixture. It is true we have a secular system, and no longer undertake to teach even the elements of religion in our public schools, but we cannot quite ignore the importance of good behaviour and pure morals, and wholesome tongues." Can it be believed that, in less than a month from tin? date of the appearance in his leading columns of these passages, our contemporary has entered upon a warm defence of the system which lie has himself here plainly accused of a tendency to promote a tainted atmosphere, to cause the deterioration of children, to excite the " abhorrence " of parents against a " dangerous mixture," and to require especial precautions bince the elements of religion are no longer taught, lest we should- come quite to " ignore the importance of good behaviour and pure morals and wholesome tongues." In defence of the system thus illustrated by his own pen, our contemporary now summons " the friends of freedom and popular education "to prepare for the struggle. So much for his consistency, his honesty, and his love of morality. Our contemporary, in defence of this system against whose pernicious tendencies he has himself warned the public, has twice attacked the Rev. Father Henxebery, who made in St. Joseph's Church, Dunedin, statements bearing on the secular system in America, and which, moreover, were confirmatory of other statements quoted by us from time to time in these columns, for the most part from the publications of Protestant writers. The first attack made by the Times lias been answered by his Lordship the Bishop of Dunedin, and its leading passages, together with the answer of the Bishop, will be found "in another column. The second attack has not as yet been answered. Therefore, whilst we await the reply that we doubt not will, in due time, be made to it, we feel that the duty devolves upon us of pointing out to our Catholic readers certain of the fallacies thus advanced. In the first place then, our contemporary must be aware that the Rev. Missionary did not mean, by the destruction of children, infanticide strictly so-called. The subject was » difficult one, and required, when alluded to in a mixed congregation, delicate handling. Our contemporary has taken up the matter wrongly, and we cannot believe him so ignorant of the secret iniquities of American life as not to have erred consciously. We, at least, confess that it is not now only that the matter has been brought before us. We had already heard of it from men of various characters, and who regarded it variously, and we have no doubt whatever that horrible practices exist in gigantic proportions, and which are to be named alone by some such euphemism as that our contemporary pro - fesses to misunderstand. We do not doubt that Father Hennebery's figures are substantially correct. In the second place, the statistics of divorces are easily procurable. The records of the County Courts will furnish them, and the calculation made has been based upon particulars thus obtained. Again, the statistics of crime in the colonies given by our contemporary are quite beside the question. To prove anything in favour of his argument from this, it would be necessary for him to show that the Catholic criminals alluded to had in fact been educated in Catholic schools, and that, then, unexposed to extraordinary temptations and trials, they had become more corrupt than people educated in secular schools, and similarly circumstanced. The contrary is, we doubt not, the case ; a wretched system of Government in Ireland has for centuries prevented the effectual Catholic education of the masses, and, in consequence, numbers of them come out to these colonies uninstructed, quite unfitted to meet the many temptations to which they are subjected, or to resist the impediments and seductions placed frequently by Protestants and infidels in the way of their attending to their religious duties, the surest means of demoralising them and making them bad citizens as well as worthies* Christians — corruptio optimi pessima. Lastly, the fact, that a portion of northern Scotland, although Protestant, is moral, by no means detracts from the credit due to Catholic training as being preservative of female virtue. It is found to be so universally, and the Celtic race is not the only one in which proofs of this are to be recognised, although, if true, we may hail it as an additional glory of the good old stock that a population belonging to it is found possessed of purity, notwithstanding its Protestantism. We beg to submit the following tables of statistics to the con-

Bideration of our contemporary. They are those of illegitimacy collected by Bishop Spalding :—: — Catholic Countries. . Protestant Countries. Sardinia (1828-37 2-1 Norway (1855) 9-3 Spain (1859) 5-6 Sweden: (1855) 9-5 Tuscany .'..,!. .;.... 6 Protestant Prussia(lßsß) ... 9*3 Catholic portion of Prussia 6*l Hanover (1855) 9#99 # 9 France 0858) 7-8 Denmark (1855) 11.5 Iceland (1838-47) .'. 14 Saxony (1858) 16 Wurtemberg (1858) 16. In conclusion, the " forty millions " spoken of by Father Hennebery, although they have not, as our contemporary sneeringly suggests, voted for the destruction of the evil cause pointed out to them by the Rev. Missionary, have, at least, never attempted to contradict the statements made by him openly amongst them. This has been reserved for the Daily Times, who, in less than one short month, has become the chanipion of the system he acknowledged as tending to the ignoring of the "importance of good behaviour, and pure morals, and wholesome tongues." It may be that those who are corrupt amongst the " forty millions " acknowledge thendegradation, and acquiesce in it. Such a state of mind is not uncommon amongst the debased. They have not, however, ventured to repudiate the statements of the Rev. Missionary when made in their midst, and consequently it is but reasonable to conclude that the parties immediately concerned accept these statements as true. We do not see that our contemporary has gained much by hanging out the atheistic placard ; he has simply proved himself thereby to be inconsistent and fallacious.