The New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 1882. MORE INFAMY. ,

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 468, 31 March 1882, Page 15

The New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 1882. MORE INFAMY. ,

tE said last week that the origin of secularism being one, its fruits likewise would be found of the same nature, and this week we are enabled to bring forward evidence which tends very strongly to prove the truth of our assertion. We find, then, in the Melbourne Argus of March 10, a report of the examination before the Education Commission of Mr. G. W. Brown, Secretary of Education, and his evidence, is instructive and suggestive in the highest degree— it is instructive as to the infamy attendant on the system it exposes, and suggestive as to the value of the services to society. of those who have opposed that system and led to its exposure, lo enter into anything like a minute examination of the revelations made by Mr. G. W. Brown, would be impossible in tlie pages of any newspaper aspiring to cleanliness, and in which it is desired to publish nothing that is not fit to be read by people of all ages and both sexes, fc'uch a task might be reserved for columns that are devoted to pandering to vile tastes and, to the everlasting disgrace of the Victorian Educational System, such columns might be very fittingly supplied from its records Nevertheless, it is impossible for us to pass the matter over in silence. Our duty is to inform Catholic parents of

what it is that has accompanied secularism in, other countries so that they may be reassured as to the sacrifices and efforts they have been wise enough to make in resistance to it among ourselves, And encouraged in their determination still to resist it. We learn, according to Mr. B down's sworn testimony, that most corrupting and abominable conduct in teachers has been considered quite sufficiently checked by the Victorian educational authorities when the teacher complained of, and convicted either wholly or in part, had been removed to another school, where, under the shelter of an unblemished reputation, he might find a new field for his indecencies and outrages against the children confided to his care. Take the following examples :. — A master convicted of seducing a pupil teacher, and accused of other infamous offences, which, however, were unproven, was, after some time of deprivation, restored to the service of the schools by order of the Minister. A teacher guilty, in the presence of his pupils, of a gross indecency, punishable by the law, was excused on the plea that.he was drunk at the time, and removed to another school. A teacher ' accused of indecency and convicted of indiscretion, was. xc- , moved to another school. A teacher convicted of gross impropriety >. without the school, was transferred to a smaller ' school. A teacher accused of improper language and a disgusting offence, was censured for using improper, language and ,for a modification of the offence alluded to, and wa& removed to a^ smaller .school where he would receive a smaller salary. But, besides the pases in which Mr. Brown stated that the accused- teachers had been convicted, or partially convicted, of the offences charged against them, we find that other charges were brought, which were either considered trivial, or which there was not eyidence U> support. — The fact, however, of their having been considered trivial, seems but to fit in with the indulgence of the authorities, who, as we have already seen, were by.no means inclined to deal heavily with offences undeniably grave, and whose judgment, therefore, as to the constitution of peccadillos may be very reasonably questioned. In : those cases, again, in which the charges were unproven, it still remains as an indication of the nature of the schools, .that they were made there, in some instances at least, by the children -themselves, whose moral character may very well be thus estimated. — Whether it is more shocking to find teachers commit such offences as those alluded to, or to find children so depraved as falsely to nxake them, it is hard to decide. What, however, we are, able most clearly to decide is that, on the showing of the secretary of education, the Victorian system of - .education has been a sink of filth, into which no parent who •valued decency should at any cost have sent his child. To do so was probably to expose the child to the vilest usage on the part of degraded men appointed to act as teachers, and assured, as we see, that even if they were detected in any villany, their punishment would be wholly inadequate to their offence ; or else it was to risk the danger of the companionship for the child, of prematurely vicious and cunning creatures, contact with whom meant debasement, and instruction in all that is filthy and detestable, — for such must be the pupils who bring false accusations of the kind alluded to .against their masters. In conclusion, there is now great indignation and horror felt in England because of the recent discovery of an abominable system of deceit practised on young English girls who were decoyed to Belgium on lying pretences and there exposed to a bfe of infamy. But what is to be thought of the - Government that has stretched out the strong arm of the law and seized hold of the innocent child on her father's hearth, to drag her thence and expose her to the danger of such a life, — for girls betrayed into the hands of the masters or into the companionship of the children that Mr. G. W. Brown has described, were so exposed, and the Government of Victoria has been convicted on the sworn witness of its servant of the crime in question. — We are fallen, indeed, upon terrible days when under the pretence of education the preparatory stages of the abandoned life are forced by the law upon the daughters of the people in their childhood, and the people are submissive and contented that thus it should be. Such, then, is the lesson which Victoria teaches us concerning secularism, and it is closely akin to that we learned last week from Italy. Secularism, we say again, is one growth, and everywhere its fruits are now, or will be when

they ripen, one and the 'same.^They are 'worthy of Hh e atheistical lodges of Continental Europe, in which the tree that bears them has its roots.