The New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 1882. THE COST OP SECULARISM.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 457, 13 January 1882, Page 15

The New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 1882. THE COST OP SECULARISM.

the country of secular education must in some degree affect those who support it willingly, as well as those who are forced to do so whether they will or not, and whom it's cost affects oppressively. And that it does cost very much more than the voluntary system is undeniable. To be willing, however, and even anxious, to pay more for a system of schools whose sole advantage is the negative one, that it does not teach religion, may be accepted as a questionable mark of wisdom. But of the difference in cost between the secular system and the voluntary we obtain the following particulars from a letter written to the London Times on the proposed changes in the educational system of England, by the Anglican Rector of North Waltham :—: — I take (he says) the complete returns for 1879-80, and find, roughly speaking, that three out of every four of our children are educated in voluntary schools, and quite as well educated as in Board Schools. . . . For three -fourths of our children ratepayers contribute nothing now ; but, in the altered case, four times the present school rate would have to be levied ; and as voluntary schools, though demonetrably equally efficient, cost far less than Board School?, the £750,000 now freely given for their support, would not only be lost, but the present voluntary schools, if made into Board Schools (apart from the enormous prime cost of the structures), would require the present high rate of Board expenditure. In a word, 7s. B^d. a head on nearly 2,000,000 of children now voluntarily given would be thrown away, and the rates be charged with no less than 18s. 9fd. a head for that enormous and growing number. To be exact, this would raise (and the worst of it iB, would unnecessarily raise) the education rate now levied of £636,792 to no less than £2,447,732 !

It is evident, then, that secularists themselves, in common with those upon whom they force their system, though at a lower rate owing to their supporting no separate schools, must pay for the advantage of a want of religious instruction, and they, at least, show the sincerity of their dislike to this by their willingness to be additionally taxed, in order to keep it out of the schools. Let us do them all the justice they deserve ; they willingly " pay for their whistle."