THe New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, JULY 8,1881. NO CATHOLIC PETITION!

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 430, 8 July 1881, Page 13

THe New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, JULY 8,1881. NO CATHOLIC PETITION!

T is notable that among the petitions presented to Parliament of late on the education question not one has emanated from the Catholics of the Colon . And this is the more remarkable since of all people in the colony the Catholics are the most hurt by the Education Act. Jt is an Act, besides all else that may be advanced against it, such as has been of late directly condemned by the Pope himself, for, in an allocution delivered by him on the 20th of August last, and dealing with the education question in Belgium, he spoke as follows in reference to the kindred Act thet had secularised the schools there, and which the Bishops had, with his approval, strenuously opposed :—": — " A luw of this kind, by which the teaching-office, and rights of the church are in the highest degree detracted from, and the everlasting salvation of youth exposed to the greatest peril, could not, in accordance with their duty, be approved by the Bishops, upon whom God has laid the duty and burden of diligently labouring to ward off things aimed against the salvation of souls and the sanctity of faith." It is an Act that requires Catholics to renounce their obedience to the Holy See, and by compliance with which they would lose their right to the name of Catholic — a name that Catholics have often supported their right to at the risk of their lives, and at the total loss of their worldly goods. How comes it, then, that in this season of petitions praying our Parliament to make alterations in the Act, Catholics hold aloof? The answer may be found in the disregard shown in the past to our petitions, which gained for us nothing but a seeming contempt. It almost appears that Catholics are hopeless of justice from the legislature, and feel that they may best preserve their dignity by refraining from making a prayer that would be esteemed beneath the notice of those to whom it was addressed. But is there not something also due to the dignity of Parliament ? Does it betoken in us a proper respect for the assembly that makes our laws, and which as loyal subjects we are bound to regard with reverence, to treat it as if we esteemed any claim of justice out of the reach of its consider*-

tion. ? Should we not rather suppose that its ears are ever open to the voice that pleads a right ? Men of old considered it the greatest glory of even a a Roman Emperor's reign that none were too lowly for him to hear their cry for justice. Dantb placed among the pictures on the wall of Purgatory Trajan's delay of his journey at a widow's call for vengeance on the murderers of her son, and thus made known to us what was his belief respecting the majesty of humility, and what he thought greatest in the man whose whole worth was such that the tradition of the middle age declared he had merited that St. Gregory's prayer should be heard for his delivery from Hell. Shall Catholics then not offer somewhat of a slight to the Parliament of the Colony if they hold back from petitioning it, assuming that this is vain, that it will not bend to their petition, that it is deaf once for all to their claim for justice ? We confess we fear there may be some ground for such an accusation, and that the absence of a Catholic petition may be taken as a tacit rebuke to those whose office above all things is certainly to secure justice for every section of people in the colony, and whose greatest praise it would be to do this thoroughly. Meantime, we find the following paragraph in the telegraphic correspondence of our contemporary the Daily Times of Wednesday :—: — Mr. Rolleston to-day presented a petition to the House of Representatives, signed by the Most Reverend the Primate of New Zealand, as President of the General Synod of the Church of England, representing that any fully satisfactory measure for education by the State should contain a provision for grants-in-aid being made to schools set on foot by any religious denomination, provided that the attendance and secular instruction in such schools shall come np to the required standard and satisfy the Government inspector, lhe petition further urges that the Education Act should be so amended that provision may be made for the communication of religious instruction, by ministers of religion or persons duly authorised by them, to the children belonging to their respective communions within school hours. It is prayed that effect may be given to these recommendations. We shall not enter into comparisons, for, as we have implied, it seems to us to lack respect for our Parliament when we assume that anything, except some untoward accident, has hitherto prevented it from hearing our prayer for justice, and therefore we are restricted in the comments we might otherwise make. As it is, we shall confine ourselves to the hope that no untoward accident may occur to mar the success of this most considerate and fairly devised petition, but that, at least, since we have been so unfortunate in the past, and perhaps are destined, on our own account, to encounter still an adverse fortune in the future, justice may be blown to us by a side-wind. Let it come by any means, and we shall welcome it heartily — we do not say by any lawful means, for otherwise there could be no justice.