THE EDUCATION QUESTION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 29, 17 April 1891, Page 17

THE EDUCATION QUESTION.

GAIN we come to treat of this question. It is an old, and yet ever new, question, and its phases are manifold. The gross injustice ot our present system of public education is palpable, and what is more, is very generally acknowledged. IlarJly a decent man in the country, possessed of intelligence and even a little information, can be formd to defend either its principle or its working. Go where you will through the country, you will find very few to defend its exclusion of Catholics from all share in the expenditure of their own money, or who have a good word to say for the efficiency of the teaching of the godless schools. We are not pronouncing our own opinion, but merely acting the part of a contemporary historian . So far as we are ourselves concerned, we pronounce no opinion on the efficiency of the secular teaching in public schools. On this point we have never interested ourselves, have had very few opportunities of forming an opinion, and never sought any ; but we state what we have heard again and again, what is obvious from the public prints, and what is evident from the nature of the case. The public verdict appears to be that these schools are not distinguished for efficiency or morals, and that, with the exception of arithmetic, the teaching does not amount to much. Taking this for granted, and we think it must thus be taken, it appears obvious that the country is paying a great deal too much for a little arithmetic. This, however, is & question for the consideration of the public. If they are satisfied we should have no reason to complain, were it not that our own money is compulsorily taken from us to b« wasted on this system, and whilst thus wasted is tyrannically withheld from our own schools which have a just claim to it. Some people labour hard to persuade the public that Catholics are enemies to public education, indeed the enemies of education, and they succeed in persuading some poor idiots that sucb is the case. Nothing can open the eyes of people who are determined not to open their eyes or make them see the scene which they are determined not to see. Catholics, the enemies of education ; enemies of education, public or otherwise ? Why, it is only necessary for people to look upon what is plainly set before their eyes in every part of the Colony to perceive how monstrously unjust is this charge. If people said, indeed, that Catholics were the best, truest, and most generous advocates and supporters of education they would speak the truth. For who have made for twenty years, and are still making, the greatest sacrifices in personal exeition and in money for the cause of education ? Yes, who ? And the reply is, and no one can deny it, the Catholics, who in this give a bright example to their fellow-colonists, and who by their noble sacrifices are doing as they have hitherto done, the greatest services to real education, Christianity, and morality. Nevertheless, an iniquitous education law insists on severely punishing them for their exertions and sacrifices, instead of rewarding them. And instead of rewarding them for their extraordinary services «yen to the State, this State takes from them tens of thousands of pounds annually, simply because they establish and support Christian and efficient schools, and squanders this vast sum on a system which is universally regarded as neither just nor efficient. Is it any wonder, then, that so much social disturbance prevails, and that so many are out of employment ? For the Government that perpetrates such a grievous injustice on a large and deserving class of the community, is manifestly incapable of wisely legislating, or administering the affairs of the country. But, whilst all are dissatisfied with the present system of public education, no attempt is made to amend or reform it, on the plea that any attempt to do so would cause it to fall to pieces. This is the state of the case, and shows that no case can be worse. That system which cannot stand amendment or reform must be rotten indeed, and rotten indeed is our public system, and unjust to the core, which cannot exist without plundering, in the most barefaced manner, eighty thousand Catholics.