The New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1879. EDUCATION AND TAXATION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 343, 14 November 1879, Page 13

The New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1879. EDUCATION AND TAXATION.

(Continued.) UR contemporary the Otago Daily Times has been erroneously un er the impression that C tholics would not accept " a payment by results system " as a solution of the education question. There ■were no grounds for this impression ; and the fact is we have been at all times prepared to accept a payment by results system. It is, in

our estimation, and we have been always of the same opinion, a fair solution of the difficulty in which governments find

thems'lves of meeting the educational requirements of all sections of mixed communities. But then such a system should not be one-sided ; it should be impartially carried out in reference to all sections of the people. A payment by results system should not be restricted to Catholic and Anglican schools. There is no reason why secular or Government schools should be exempted from its operation. We object, vehemently object to a payment by results system which would leave the present secular system intact and only superadd a result system so far as Catholic, Anglican and other denominational schools are concerned. Why should not the proficiency of the secular system be tested precisely in the same way as that of the denominational schools, and payments be made accordingly ? What we demand is equality and justice ; and we shall never rest satisfied with anything less. If our Parliament really wishes to act justly and impartially, as it is bound to do, it will repeal the present godless system which compels all sections of the community to support unchristian schools for the exclusive benefit of that portion of the community which finds no conscientious scruples in having their children brought up in an unchristian manner, and establish a really impartial payment by results system. Such a system we shall gladly accept, but not a soi disant results system, which would stamp the seal of inferiority on denominational schools.

Why should secularists be placed in an exceptionally favourable position in reference to this question ? Secularists and Denominationalists should be put on a footing of perfect equality, and this can only be done by treating them all alike. Let Secularists and Denominationalists, then, build their own schools, provide their own teachers, and receive aid from the public funds in accordance with the results they produce. We ask for nothing more, we shall be content with nothing less. If less be offered to us, we shall examine whether the offer can be conscientiously accepted, and if it can, then we may accept the offer under protest, on the principle that half a loaf is better than no bread, and with the understanding that we shall continue to agitate for what is justly our due. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the Daily Times will no longer labour under a mistake as to our principles in reference to a payment-by-results system. Some gentleman or lady who is very much afraid to let the public see his or her name in print has written a letter to the Daily Times, in which the curious in literature and logic will find something very amusing. According to this writer, it is necessary to continue to perpetrate an injustice in NewZealand because there is a State Church in England for which nobody here is responsible, and because there are two condemned propositions in the celebrated Syllabus, the meaning of which this letter writer does not understand. We wonder if our legislators are ever influenced by such arguments as these. If they are, woe to poor New Zealand ! there is a sad future before her.