The New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, MAY 14, 1880. THE EDUCATION QUESTION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 369, 14 May 1880, Page 13

The New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, MAY 14, 1880. THE EDUCATION QUESTION.

igsjipp'HE time for the opening of Parliament is near at ra^SsHl* hand and as yet there is no indication of any ffiUlwiy-. move on the part of Catholics in the direction of |yjgW|& getting up petitions in reference to the gross j«jGß|z". injustice done to them by the law on education T^Klw at present in force. "We imagine this is because 4JK 4*4 * they remember the contempt with which Parlianient treated the petition sent, the session before last, by the aggregate meeting of the Catholics of New Zealand. They have, probably, come to the conclusion that it is in vain to ask justice from the Parliament of New Zealand ; and we have reason to know that this consideration has influenced a large number of the most influential amongst them. This is a deplorable and a very serious state of things. Nothing can be more dangerous to the peace and well-being of a community than a wide-spread conviction that it is hopeless to expect justice from the legislature or executive of a country. Indignation and despair are apt to take the place of contentment and hope, and to suggest the adoption of means little conducive to the peace and well-being of a State. The history of the world proves this. In the present day, Russia is a horrid example of excesses to which despair of justice is capable of driving those wlio have lost all hope of a ' redress of grievances from the sense 01 justice of their rulers. And the poverty and discontent of Ireland arise from the systematic injustice to which she has been subjected for centuries. To-day she is the opprobrium of England and a chastisement of English injustice, — her attitude of a starving j suppliant before the nations excites horror throughout the world and a loathing of English legislation and government in Ireland, which renders this legislation and government objects of detestation and contempt to all mankind. The

■pirit that dictated these still animates Englishmen and Scotchmen in the Colonies. The prejudices of early training, the bad traditions of a wicked past influence the descendants of the authors of the penal laws ; and the domineering spirit that trampled upon the rights and liberties of Irishmen and Catholics and plundered them is far from being extinct even in New Zealand. Nothing is more consoling to a true British secularist wherever he may find himself, than to tyrannise over * Catholic Irishman.

In the old land we had for centuries to support an alien church for the service of the very men who had robbed us of our property ; here we are compelled to support a godless system of education for the children of men who tax us for schools and give us no share in the expenditure of the proceeds of the tax. It is the old spirit ol selfishness, plunder, and bigotry that dictates such a policy and such a law, and it is the old injustice unchanged, except as to a mere circumstance. And in order to gratify this insensate hate and avarice the entire financial system of the countiy is thrown into confusion, crushing taxation inflicted on the people at large, and the germs of future dissensions planted in the hearts of multitudes of men.

Some people will be found to deprecate this style of writing, and we must say that it grieves ourselves to be compelled to have recourse to it ; but what we have said is true, and it is necessary. B No one can deny that the object in views of Secularists is to destroy Catholicity. This has been avowed again and again by all the leaders of the party, and a secondary object is, in the British Empire, to destroy every sentiment and vestige of Irish nationality. The great ambition of English statesmen is to make the inhabitants of Ireland West Britons. It is sought to make Irishmen forget their country and their religion. With tnis view have laws been made and enforced for centuries, and now in these latter days, when penal legislation and brute force have been found to be inefficacious, an astute policy pretending equality, but in reality granting it only to the acceptors of godlessness, has been employed. Everything is done that injustice can do to rob the rising generation of Catholics of their faith, by rearing them up either in ignorance or contempt of it.

A system of education has been established, for which Catholics are compelled to pay, whose primary object is to annihilate the influence of the Catholic religion, to turn away people from the Christian faith and Christian practices, and make men blaspheme everything their fathers have held most dear and sacred for fourteen centuries. And because godless schools may be frequented by the children of Catholics, so far «s the law of the land is concerned, it is said Catholics are on a footing of equality with all their fellow-subjects. Reverse the picture, — suppose there were no schools except Catholic schools in the country supported by general taxation, would all be on a footing of equality "because these were open to all who chose to come to them ? Or again, suppose that in the public schools maintained at the expense of all none but Catholic teachers were to be found, that in the administration of the system all the members of Committees or Boards were Catholics, that all the officials of every kind, all the inspectors were Catholics, what would our Secularist friends say ? Would they be content ? would they regard such a system as fair and just to them ? would they consider it right that they should be compelled to pay for the maintenance of this system, whilst at the same time paying the entire expense of secular schools for their own children.

We know, indeed, that in making such a supposition we are imagining an impossibility — that is if we may be guided by the past performances of Secularists. "Who ever heard of a Secularist school supported on the voluntary principle? Who ever heard of even a loud, enthusiastic Secularist ever giving one shilling towards the support of a school ? They are very zealous for education when other people pay for it, and all very forward in assuming to themselves the power to make public education godless, when their weaker and more apathetic fellow-citizens permit them to do so ; but the thought of making any pecuniary sacrifices in the cause of education apparently never enters their heads. Nevertheless, we may ask what would they think of a Catholic system of education supported by the State to the exclusion of all other systems ? Would they consider themselves treated justly and on a footing of perfect equality because, if they wished, they could send their children to the Catholic schools ?