NO RELAXATION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 14, 26 July 1889, Page 16

NO RELAXATION.

LTHOUGH the defeat of Mr. Pyre's Education ; Bill the other day at Wellington was of a ' nature to give Catholics some increased hope for the future, it is by no means to be concluded that they have as yet been placed in such a position as to justify their relaxing their efforts to bring about a better state of things. 1 On the contrary, it is to their efforts in the paat that they owe the improvement in opinion that has taken place. Had they quietly submitted to the injustice done to , them, and remained silent as to their claims, their attitude , would, not only have been taken as one of voluntary acquiescence, but no one would have been at the trouble of finding out I the true state of the question, and Catholic tenets, as well as Catholic feeling, on the subject would have remained completely misunderstood. The spirited opposition given, however, and the continuous claim made by the Catholics of the Colony, have effectually prevented this. Every candidate for Parliamentary representation, for instance, has been obliged to pay more or less attention to the nature of the case, and, as we have seen, good results of this necessity have not been wholly wanting. It is impossible that candid and intelligent men can, for any length of time, give due heed to any question without arriving at right views and just conclusions respecting it. Catholics, as a matter of course, understand their duty in the matter referred to. All over the world they are of

one mind regarding it, and, as a rule, there is no duty they are more particular in performing. We have already alluded to their patience and persistence for over forty years in Holland. We have also recently heard a striking expression of Catholic opinion as given before a committee appointed by the Legislature of the State of Massachusetts. The French Canadian and the American were of one mind in the matter with their Dutch brothers in religion and showed themselves unanimous in their demand for Catholic schools, and in the certainty that in no others, in compliance with the admonitions of conscience, could they educate their children. It is not sufficient, however, that Catholics themselves should understand the matter. They must not seem to the outer world to act on whim or without sufficient reason. Were it a mere matter of choice, for example, there could be no great hardship in the refusal of the State to yield to their desires. Indifferent matters must, in all instances, be sacrificed to any more important cause, and secularists might reasonably argue that the cause advocated by them deserved such priority. We do not now enter into any disputation »s to whether such would actually be the case or not. To make the question thoroughly understood by the public generally is a necessity that is laid on the Catholic population ; and this, it is true, they may do in a great degree by the evident sacrifices required of them in the support of their schools. But when, in addition to this, steps more remarkable, and such as to render inattention to them impossible, are adopted, the chance of success is much increased. Such a step, for example, is the demand on the part of the Catholic elector that the Parliamentary candidate, whatever may otherwise be his qualification, and however deserving of support on all other points he may be, should pledge himself to advocate justice in this matter of the Catholic schools. The earnestness of the Catholic population in this manner becomes not only impressed on the candidate himself, but on all who are within sight or hearing of it, and for such earnestness and determination an adequate cause must be sought. Catholics, therefore, are not in a position to relax their efforts in the slightest degree. If any change were made indeed, the results already obtained should rather renew their strength and urge them to increased endeavours. As we have already advised them over and over again in these columns, so do we once more advise them, and, with all the more confidence, since we may claim that results have already proved the value of our advice.

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