CATHOLIC EDUCATION IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 27, 24 October 1884, Page 31

CATHOLIC EDUCATION IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY.

(Sydney Freeman's Journal, Oct. 11.) The Catholic School Board established by the late Archbishop met on Friday last, when a report was presented to his Grace the Most Bey. Dr. Moran, who had been invited to attend. We understand that it is his Grace's intention to make other arrangements for the general management of the schools of the Archdiocese, and after Christmas a new system of inspection will be introduced by tip Archbishop. It is his Grace's desire to. put things on fJT better footing, and to effect many necessary improvements. The report, which is taken up for the most part with an explanation of the Catholic position in regard to the question of education, concludes as follows : — "As tbe Church has explicitly condemned the principle that religious instruction of Catholic children can safely be entrusted to non-Catholic teachers, it is obvious that in framing the present law, the Parliament of New South "Wales places Catholics in the dilemma of either forfeiting their share of theeducational revenue, or of exposing their children's faith to danger. True to the teaching of tbe Church, the Catholic peopleof this Colony, as in the others, have accepted the former alternative, and hnve already succeeded in providing for about 24,000 children in schools of their own. There still remains about the same number of Catholic children in the Public schools, mainly owing to two circumstance?. The first is that in some districts we have as yet been unable to build Catholic schools. The second is that a large part of the Catholic population is spread over so vast an area of country as to render it quite impossible for thousands of them in their scattered state to have schools of their own ; and unless the conditions Jof life change rapidly, there will long be a considerable part of the Catholic people whose children must avail themselves of the Public schools under the conscience clause. Towards the establishment of new

Catholic school* where they are needed in the Archdiocese and the perfecting of those already in existence, we look to your Grace for assistance and direction. Already much has been accomplished, since the Public Instruction Act pf 1880 came into force to show the devoted zeal of both the clergy and laity. State aid to our schools ceased absolutely only twenty months ago, yet we have m the Archdiocese of Sydney alone 105 Catholic schools, 370 teachers, and 12,363 pupils. There i 9 no need for us to dwell on the great labours of your Grace's venerated predecessor in the cause of education They are known far and wide. Even during the vacancy of the Archiepiscopal See there has been a steady increase in the number of our schools, teachers, and pupils. Nearly the whole body of our adult teachers belong to Religious Orders. The boy s metropolitan schools are mainly conducted by the zealous and capable Marist Brothers, while the rest are chiefly in the hands of five Orders of Religious Sisters. There can be no doubt that the nnbought labour of these Christian teachers is of the highest value to the cause of Catholic education. There is also a small number oE lay teachers, and they are giving satisfaction. All the primary schools have been placed under regular inspection and are making fair progress. Our wants aie many and still our means limited, for all the Catholic schools are now supported entirely without State aid, as was the case in the early days of the Colony. Your Grace coming from a land where ninety years ago the opening of a Catholic school was a penal offence punished by fine and imprisonment, but where, owing to the increased liberality of the times, the Catholic schools are now supported by Government aid, will nnd that here at the antipodes the Governments are harder to deal with in the matter of education than that of England, and far from advancing in a spirit of liberality the Governments of Australia have retrograded. Our schools are deprived of their share in. the public revenue without a shadow of justification. This is owing, not to a real want of the spirit of fairness in the muss of our fellowcountrymen, but to tbe circumstance that they have been misled by politicians and doctrinaires. Public opinion on the matter is now divided. Many thousands of the Protestant population approve of the consistent stand we have made in support of our earnest convictions, and there can be no doubt that if the rest were not misled by those who taunt us with'pjsing as martyrs,' the justice of our claim to share equally in the educational revenue would be universally admitted."