Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 6, 7 November 1890, Page 1

Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

The gentlemen who are members of the Otago secularism Educational Institute, as we Bee from their meetirg EXPOSED. held a few days ago in Dunedin, view the matter from 'heir own peculiar standing-point, and it need not surprise ub that they tbink no better use could be made by New Zealand colonists of tbeir money than that of contributing it, lavishly towards ihe extension and perfection of the education sj stem.— The schoolmaster is a very excellent functionary, and, whether at home or abroad, is much to be regarded. We may venture to doubt, nevertheless, as to whether he is quite as well qualified to instruct the public generally with respect to their duie« as citizens, or to admonish the Government as to the course to be adopted by them, as he in to instruct his pupils in the various standards. We may even, without excessive presumption, doubt his qualifications to judge as to the results to be obtained beyond the school age. The dominie, in fact, often remains to the end more or less influenced by hiß associations, and in some respects failing to advance beyond tho mental limits of his higher classes. The discussions and conclusions, therefore, of an Educational Institute may possibly be important chiefly to the gentlemen who take part in them. On some points, nevertheless, the testimony of the schoolmaster is very valuable We find, for example, from one or other of the speeches made on the occasion to which we refer, that, enormous as is the cost of our educational system, and heavily as it weighs on the resources of ihe colony, the results obtained by it are very meagre and imperf ct. The speaker in question stated that, even in Otago, where, he said, the proportion of elder boys attending schooli was greater than it was elsewhere, one-half of the pupils were withdrawn before they reached the age of thirteen, the average age of arriving at the fifth standard — one-fourth leaving before they reached the fourth standard, and one-third only re&cLing the sixth standard. The srcnlar system, therefore, is in a high degree abortive, | and fails to accomplish, even at the enormous cost entailed on the colony, the object for which it was established. It doesnot even turn out a rising genera' ion well instructed in the three H's, and capable of taking their place with credit sb independent electors. Halfinstructed children, turned out to forget the little they had learnedare for the most part the results obtained. As to the schoolmasters, they propose an amendment by means of a large expenditure. A Mr. Thomson, one of their number, for example, said :—": — " He was quite sure that if the Go\ eminent and men in a responsible position did not approach this quesuon we would have to pay for it in th<i police court some day ; and he thought we were doing so now. Th^re was a great cry about the expense of our educational system, but he thought that if a Government undertook the whole of education, they should expect to pay a very large amount. Ihe greater the am >unt expended, so far as it applied to any primary education, the less would be the amount required to be spent in less desirable directions." Mr. Thomson's advice must be taken for what it is worth — though probably he is qualified toepeak a 9 to the actual experience of the police court, which so far does not seetn relieve! by th) amount speut on schools. But what would be the use of a greater expenditure, when that already made is taken so little a 1 vant ige of ? Is the sugg 'Stion, in fact, that Government Bhould matotain the children un'il th^ir edncation has been fully carried out ? It seems evident, at leas', thit the situation of needy parents would hardly be altered by an additional expt ndi'ure on schools, so tha l any improvement or extension made in them would enable 1 hem to k> e;> th ■ children longer in attendance th°re. On the contrary, their resources would be still further crippled by increased taxatiu.i. What the BchoolmasteiS make plain to us, meantime, is that only the children of men who are well-to-do enjoy the foil advantages of the secular system, and are kept at school long enough to reach the higher standards. The po >r mm who, nevertheless, continues to pay the «ax, ia obliged to withdraw his children while they are still very backward— to all iutents and purposes, indeed, completely ignorant, and almost certainly destined to forget the little they have been taught. Out of the mouth of its own teachers the secular system is heavily condemned,

Among the Irish movements of the day none is A NOBLE EFFORr. much more interesting than that which has for its object the preservation and restoration of tl aative language. We do not know, however, that the movement making quite as much headway as might be desired— and, perhapi this is also a great work that remains for a National Parliament to accomplish. Our attention haß been called particularly to the matter by our accidentally happening on a report of a speech recently made « an Eisteddfod in Wales, by Archdeacon F*rrar. Fbi Eisteddfod, we know, ia a celebration that has been much ridiculed, but whL has been of eminent service ia fostering the spirit of Welsh natk ality and encouraging the study of the language. The Wet. language, however, has had advantages that wt-re wanting to tL. [ ish. It was not forbid len and made penal ; it was not branded by a foreign settlement with the mark of inferiority aad hardly admitted as fit for use by the lowest of the people. It has alwayß continued the tongue of the country, spoken alike by all classes. Irish, on the contrary, has shared the hard lot of the nation. Its literature, a voluminous and learned one, was again and again in principal part destroyed, enough, however, still remaining to prove how splendid in its integrity it must have been. Archdeacon Farrar, in the speech alluded to, quoted Mr. Bnskin, to the effect that a nation's language wae significant of the nation's being, and, judged by this standard, the Irish people must have a noble record. For all the purposes of learning and culture their tongue was more than sufficient, their scholars fulfilling by its means tasks that the learned of other countries were able only to accomplish by tha aid of LUin. It is the language of actiou, ha /ing a power to rouse those who understand it that hardly any other tongue possesses. Above all, it is tie language of love and affection, the language of the hundred thousand welcomes, It is the language o£ religion, every greeting a blessing, every parliag a co Jim^nia iot tj tae care of God. It is the language of terrible denunciition, telling how deep wap the abhorrance of those among whom it was developed for all that was base and vile. If the Irish people suffer their ancient tongue to perish they lose a noble and irrefutable testimjny to their wortb aad glory. But will they not also sacrifice a hope of distinction in the future ? Is ir , fjr example, an extravig>nc belief th»t the language of a people, their own native tongue, and not that imposed upon them oy an invaier. or otherwise introduced among them, is so identified with their nature, and suited to their spirit and intellect, as that, failing its use, they should be hampered even in their thoughts ? Ireland has produced t'iw graat writers in the English tougue. She his many excdllrfnt and touching p )ets, but none of tha highest powers, nj Saakeipears, no W irdsworto, no Burns. Her modern poetry, conposed in Kn^hsh, is by no me*ns on a par for instance with her ancient music handed dowa to us trom bards who spoke and thought in Irish. What if she awaus, for the production of the very best, the general use of the language native to the soil, characteristic of the people, and suitable to them as no other caa be f We say then that nothing can bo more interesting to those who rightly regard it, tuan is the attempt now being made (or the restoration of the language, and to aid towards its success must form a willing effort for every true Irishman.

Mb. Dillon and Mr William O'Brien, M.P.*, tha ABBiTED. fugi'ives from " jrnticj,' have arnve i in York, and haVi- thcie bi en accordi'l a receptio > befitti. g a great nation's f ivoured guests. The Gov rnor of ih« cii ate aud iha Ma or of the ci y welcomed 'hem, aud .1 ia ge body of citiz 'ns were convCjcd in sti amers to meet Ihe vessel bringing them in — a demon« station evidently meart— though the cable n turally gives us no hint of the kind, to murk the public feeling of America on ihe peouhar circam taaccs attending on their arrival it cannot be too emphatically insisted on that the gentlemen in question are, in the ey s of the Tory Government, criminals avoiding justice. Tne cout aat is one ihat decidedly lends interest to th' occasion. To-day the Governor of a great American St»te, and the Mtyor of a chief city o£ the Union, do them honour ; — tomorrow a &üb-2onstable may have his hand on their shoulder, and the ruffians of one of Balfour's gaols may violently strip them naked. Bat Mr. Dillon arrives under a.

double weight of opprobrium in New York. There, for example, is 1 tbe London Tablet doing its best to discharge on his ill-fated head tbe whole seven viols of the Apocalypse, or even more than that, if the editor bad it at his disposal. The reception given to him, therefore, has a two-fold signification. We do not know, in fact, that among the naay failures of the Government of Coercion in Ireland, there has been one more striking than tbat now before us. Had Mr. Balfoar been looking for an opportunity of publishiag his ignominy to the world, be could not have found one more effectual than that furnished him by tbe happy thought of Messrs. Dillon and O'Brien tbat they would defer, until they bad fulfilled more pleasing and important engagements, that which be bad formed for them at Tullamore. It it, perhaps, premature as yet to hazard a prediction as to whether Mr. Balfour will adhere to bis plan, and imprison the delegates on their return to Ireland, but it ii safe to s&y that-, if be does so, he will crown the folly of his proceedings. We are not given very full details by the cable relating to this arrival. We are, however, told, that a manifesto has been issued by tbe delegates reasserting tbeir loyalty to Mr. Parnell, a matter of form, for some reason or another, possibly deemed advisable by them. We are further told that they deprecate subscriptions towards the relief of distress in Ireland, on the plea that, ware such made, " the Tories would not remit rents. But is it not rather that such subscriptions would go towards the payment of rack-rents 1 Another clause of tbe message runs as follows . " They maintain tbat the alleged distress in Ireland is bogus," But this we are convinced is a forgery, and therefore, we oeed waste no time in commenting on it. The advice given to tbe American people evidently is to take no measures to satisfy tbe insatiable greed of landlords, ready according to their traditional habit to snatch the bit from between the jaws of tha famine stricken, and to leave to the Tory Government the duty of saving its subjects from famine, advice at which no one can take offence. When tbe people are actually on the brink of starvation, then, the landlord being duly restrained, it will be the time for charity to step in and do what justice and duty have failed to perform. But let Mr. Balfour first have the opportunity to turn to advantage the experience he has personally gained in Coaaaught. Tae reception, then, accorded to tbe delegates in America would at any time be remarkable, and capable, if anything could, of conveying a warning to the Government of coercion and showing them the necessary vanity of tbeir undertaking. Occurring, as it now doei, with a manifold significance, its effect must be powerful, even in quarters as Btiff-necked, short-sighted, and dogged, as those in which Lord Salisbury and Mr. Ba!foor preside.