The New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1879. EDUCATION AND TAXATION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 336, 26 September 1879, Page 13

The New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1879. EDUCATION AND TAXATION.

(Continued.) N pursuance of our promise last week it is now our duty to state the results of denominational education in the most Protestant country of Europe. Before doing so, however, we wish to premise some words from the Archbishop of Posen, written in lOGB. His Grace says :—: — " The mixed system has never been applied in Prussia to primary schools ; these have been and are at the present day purely denominational. From what I have said you will understand that our elementary schools, if Catholic, have Catholic books and Catholic teachers ; if Protestant, their books and teachers are Protestant. The normal schools for the training of teachers have the same denominational character, those for training Catholic teachers have Catholic professors and Catholic text books, whilst t verything is Protestant in the training of Protestant teachers. The rights of bishops and pastors are recognised by our Government in regard to the schools of their respective creeds, and are exercised in

harmony with the rights which are claimed by the State." And what has been the result of this system ? Two years before the Archbishop of Posen wrote these words Mr. Gregory, in a speech delivered in the English House of Commons on the 15th May, 1866 stated the result in the following words :—: — " The result of this system is this : An admirable education pervading the whole community, only two out of 100 not being able to read, write, and cypher, and a thorough and cordial acceptance of it by every religious denomination 5 ." We may be permitted to add a word or two in reference to how a great Catholic Empire treats a Protestant minority. We quote the words of the Times of 13th September 1859, showing how Protestant schools were managed in Austria.

" The Protestant schools are for the future to be under the direction and inspection of their ecclesiastical organs. No books can be used in Protestant schools which have not been approved by the General (Protestant) Conference and by the Ministry for Ecclesiastical Affairs. If a Protestant school is established at the expense of the State, only Protestant teachers can be employed in it." We next invite the especial attention of our readers and of all who have the welfare of the State at heart to weigh well the following testimony as to the effects of mixed and secular schools. Speaking of the common school system in the United States of America the Protestant bishop of Tennessee says :—: —

" There was just no religion at all in ic. It was secular, and took no uotice of God, or of Christ, or of the Church of the living God, or, except in the most incidental way, of God's Holy Word. It was quite true that in some schools — the number was comparatively small— the Bible was read, and in some the Lord's Prayer was said, bat who could presume to call that Christian education 1 Merely reading the Bible without explanation or comment was not instructive. What would be said of a military school where the professors only read a chapter or two on military tactics, but gave no lessons, made no comments, required no drill ? How could they expect mere reading of the Bible to the young would make Christian men and women 1 But in the great majority of schools even that was not done; and so the youth of the country left school ready in figures, skilful with the pen, well instructed in the anatomy of the body, and mechanism of the steam engine, but utterly ignorant of tlw principles of duty, truth, religion, and honour, without knowing the Ten Commandments or the Apostles' Creed." And what has been the result of this species of education, this secular, this godless system ? We shall cite two witnesses, one American, one Prussian. The Rev. Dr. Cheevers states that " Five-sixths of the people of the Untted States do not attend any place of worship." The other witness, a distinguished Prussian, quoted by Bishop Moran in the lecture spoken of in our leadei last week, and from which we have derived all the information contained in our two leadei s, this one and the one last week, says : " I came to your country to study its geography, its laws, its institutions, and I find 2000 religions and nobody believing in God. 1 ' And this lamentable state of things this writer attributes to godless education. We may conclude for this week with the very remarkable words of Fox, the founder of the first Reformatory for children : '• Of what use is it to the Commonwealth that its rogues should know how to read, write, and cypher ? These acquirements are only so many master-keys put into their hands to break into the sanctuary of human society."