IRISH-AUSTRALIANS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 37, 19 June 1891, Page 27

IRISH-AUSTRALIANS.

By One of Them.

(Argvt, 23rd May.) Thb frequent references we have had lately to the subject of Roman Catholic education makes all thoughtful Irishmen, ana many others consider with concern the present and probable consequence* of tbis Byßtem. Ihe Irish came to thio country at first much as others came With others they pioneered, bore their part in politic and society as honourably helped their neighbours, Rnd, in a word, shared the buildiog of our basement. But it may be doubted whether this still continues, and present tendencies indicate that it will not continue. At first the Irish were distinguished from their fellows by dialect and a certain open-heartednees, but they were the equals of any, the comrades of all. Nuw the peculiarities of laDguage are disappearing ; bnt does the iugeaomness remain ? Does the camaraderie, nay, the equality remain ? An observant man cannot deny that there is a progressive differentiation of Irish-Australianß from all others, and , this must tend to the disadvantage of ona or the other. Of which ! From a philosophical standpoint, the answer is a simple one. A people whose sole moral sanction is the fear cf eternal physical torture, will necessarily tend to become morally inferior to a people which has sanctions of a higher order. And history has shown, and will show again, that moral inferiority is but a prelude to racial or national inferiority. There is another acpect of the question of disadvantage which most be considered. Races or peoples in the midst of unfriendly races or peoples tend to develop qualities inimical to the latter, and according as these qualities make the former stronger or weaker than the others, tyranny or subjection, will be its policy or its fate. The possibility of the one is for the threatened people to cousider early, and to devise means to check it ; the danger of the other, a danger becoming imminent to the Irish in Australia, ought, when pointed out, to nerve the true patriots to work for the assimilation of their fellow-Irish with the rest of me people, and thus only avert the doom of their race. For I assert, with full knowledge of what lam saying, and with only too convincing phenomena to guide me, that the Irish in Australia are on the down grade to helotage. j What is the cause of this ? Briefly, separate Roman Catholic education. This contains in itself another cause— the usual ascendancy of a priesthood when comparative prosperity follows indigence in their flocks. For tfce petp.e themselves would not have refused the advantages of education and communion with their fellow-men which the Education Acts gave. Their present opposition is solely due to the action of thtir prieste, and on tbeir heads, of course, any evil results will, in the long tud, rebound. Before the establishment of their exclusive schools the attitude of Roman Catholics to their fellow Australians of other religions was one of tolerance, or rather,

perhaps, of that " give and take " kind which is the forerunner of harmony. Since, the venom of suspicion has been slowly permeating the balk, engendering, as is only to be expected, a similar suspicion in the objects of it ; imagined wrongs have been made to seem wanton injuries inflicted by the bigotry of opposition sects; political actg have been done by the Irish-Australians which have caused others to distrust them, or to warily make tools of them ; these political aots, showing that their politics are but a flywheel for their sect, condema them as unfit to govern ; rivalries that are not healthy, opprobrious catchwords banded about by school boys and girls, and stories aboat the " Proddy dogs " that remind one of the licence of the Reformation period — render friendship between Catholic and Protestant, onoe common and growing, almost impossible between children, quite so between adults. The present attitude is in fact sullen. What the future will be I can only indicate. Not two different religions merely, or two classes, or two hostilejcamps even, but two castes—* ruling and a servile. The attitude of other Australians to the Roman Catholic Irish* Australians was at first tolerant, and showed that they had a strong deßire to get on amicably and helpfully with them. There were, of course, a few signs of ancestral quarrels, but these were faßt disappearing. The Irish politician and the British fought the same battles side by side, were honoured together, and were trusted alike. Irish children were not distinguishable from English or Scotch in the school playgrounds. They were good " mates," nay, added a certain warmness to the union that our country cannot well afford to do without ; but the Catholic education system came in, and before long the evil effects were seen. Irish politicians, sent to Parliament to make good laws, sent to represent the people, saw only one law on the statute book, viz., the Education Act. They were indifferent whether the scale of Government weighed to freedom or to slavery ; they wanted that Act modified to suit their Ohurch. The result was their professions were not believed ; the very suspicion of being a Catholic was sufficient, andy juatly^enough at times, to beget distrust, and so the Irish-Australians became degraded to the ignoble position of their fellows in the United States, a mere deadweight in the hands of anj party that promises most support to its leader's demands. The attitude of other Australians to a party like this cannot be expected to be other than suspicious. If anyone wiehes to know the attitude of State sobool children to their Catholic fellows, let him listen to the language used when some of the latter are passing the State school gates. A chassa is opening between them which will never be bridged perhaps unless by the help of civil war. The worst feature of the policy of tho priests is the distrust and suspicion with which everything Catholic ia regarded by good and worthy men and women of other sects— not because they are Catholic, but because each of them seems engaged in some secret conspiracy against the liberty of their fellows. So, M the highest offices in the land are becoming unattainable by Catholics, and as the careers where independence would be ensured are shut to them, as the private teaching establishments are closed to them, as the law seems chary to them, they are forced to earn a living, and to pursue their ambitions sheltered in some dependent position, shielded by bulk votes only in many cases, from being deprived of any but menial offices. Dependence seems their only hope, and it must b» remembered that a people who can be, but refuse to be, self-reliant, become before long, organically unable to be. We talk of evflution so much nowadays that we are apt to forget there is such a thing as degradation, with complex organic accompaniment! too. The attitude of others to them, then, was favourable, ia suspicious, and will be, I fear, as the Brahman's is to the Sudra All things point to this. There ia a gradual differential tion by weakening of the Irish-Australian race into a distinct national organ, whose office must necessarilyjbe menial. Another thing must be remembered. The gulf of religion is^widening daily. The Catholic remains at a standstill ; the others are ever expanding, consciously and unconiciously, their bases, their framework, and their spirits. When then, emotionally ,' 4 the Irish-Australian is stronger than his fellows, while morally and intellectually he tends to become their inferior, when his political conduct is such that all must distrust him politically and thus grow suspicbus of him socially, when be knows no other moral sanction than that of physical pain, when bis seeking to hide himself from the pains of ordinary competition leads him to rush eagerly for parasitic positions, and thus weakens him intellectually and eventually physically, howjcan the most prejudiced aoothsaver cast a favourable horoscope for his future f We hear much of the evils of the Education Act, from Manchester to Melbourn », and it is too much State-directed not to have its faults, but if the most persistent critic* of it were to turn their attention to the tendencies I have indicated, and honestly Bpell out their meaning, metbinks they would ba heard less often on their pet subject. There are thinking-Australians yet, and there is hope yet. Assimilation must be their watchword would they save their race here, nay, their adopted country itself.

THE OOLLAPBB OP THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN .