The New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1880. SEE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 392, 15 October 1880, Page 13

The New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1880. SEE.

a contrast there is between the legislation of Canada and that of New Zealand on the education question. Here in New Zealand there is one-sided legislation, having for its object the ascendancy of godlessness in schools, and the oppression of all conscientious Christians. Here all are taxed for the purpose of

tHAT giving a free and godless education to the children of well-to-do people ; whilst the gutter-children are utterly neglected, and conscientious people are refused all share in the expenditure of the monies they have themselves contributed. New Zealand Catholics are compelled to pay for the erection of schools into which their children never enter, and for the godless instruction of the children of other people who are well able, and for the most part very willing, to pay for their education. In New Zealand the Catholic minority is trampled on by Parliament, which even resents the presentation of Catholic petitions asking for redress, and refuses to take the least notice of the complaints of Catholics on the education question, when occasionally presented to its consideration, as was the case at the end of the last session of Parliament. In no country, Victoria and New South Wales excepted, have Catholics been treated with more superciliousness and in a more tyrannical manner. Contrast this shocking state of things with the spirit of justice and equality which has dictated the legislation of Canada in reference to public education. In Lower Canada the great majority of the inhabitants are Catholic ; in Upper Canada the majority are non-Catholics. In neither has any attempt been made by Parliament to coerce the minority. In both Upper and Lower Canada the minority has its own

schools supported by public funds on precisely the same conditions. In both, the-tax gatherer after collecting the school rates hands over to Protestants and to Catholics, for the support of their respective schools, the rates contributed by each denomination. Thus the money contributed in rates by the Protestants in Lower Canada, where Catholics are in an "overwhelming majority, are handed over to the Protestant minority for the support of their own denominational schools. And similarly in Upper Canada the rates paid by the Catholic minority are handed over to this minority for the support of their own schools. This is a just arrangement, most equitable, and it is found to give satisfaction and promote peace and contentment. Behold then the two sides of the picture. Can there be a greater contrast than that which exists between the injustice and tyranny of New Zealand in reference to education, and the justice and equity of Canada on the same question. In Canada every man gets his own, and all citizens are on a footing of equality ; here, on the other hand, a godless majority appropriates the entire amount set apart for education to itself, to the exclusion of all who refuse to adore the idol of godlessness, pockets the money of Catholics, whom it compels to pay for the free and godless education of its own children, and keeps its heel upon their necks. In Canada its citizens are not only free to approach the Legislature, but when they do so, they are. treated with respect, their views arc considered, and their grievances remedied. Heie it is altogether different. It is with considerable difficulty Catholics can induce representatives even to present their petitions, which, when presented, are treated contumeliously, either not received at all, as happened the session before last, or rapidly huddled out of doors to be consigned to the waste-paper basket. Their claims to justice are not even considered, not deemed -worthy of the least attention, and even Ministers who ought to give an example of decency and prudence do not deign to take the least notice of their advocates in the House of Representatives. Behold the contrast !