ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHOOLS IN VICTORIA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 14, 20 January 1893, Page 19

ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHOOLS IN VICTORIA.

(Auckland Star, January 9.) Whatever opinion may be held with regard to the attitude of the Roman Catholic authorities towards secular education, it is impossible to view without admiration the sacrifices made by the adherents of that body in carrying out their principles. Since the Education Acts were passed in the various colonieß, which provided for a secular, free and compulsory system, the Boman Catholics have never ceased to protest. They have not contented themselves, like some of their Protestant sympathisers, with " great cry and little wool," but have erected schools and maintained teachers at considerable expense. In Victoria especially strenuous efforts have been made to compete with the State schools, and some of the clergy have sacrificed a considerable portion cf their incomes to that purpose. The annual report of the Boman Catholic schools in that colony has juat been issued, and i shows that during the year £12,713 19a has been expended in building new schools and improving old ones. On one school, erected in Geelong, erected by Archdeacon Slattery — whose assertion that he was ready to draw "a free and flashing sword " in defence of a religious system of education has often been quoted — a sum of £6000 has been spent. The total number of pupils attending Catholic schools in the archdiocese is 18,792. The authorities claim that the education imparted is a sound one, and tbe report dwells with pride upon the fact that in an open competition at Bacchus Marsh against the State schools of the district, the local Catholic school carried off 41 prizes out of 50. Many of these schools are officered by members of rel gious orders, and are thus maintained at comparatively small cost ; but still the drain upon the Catholics, who have, in addition, to furnish their contribution to the national system of education, must be a very heavy one. The average cost per child in attendance at the State schools in Victoria is a little over £5. 010 1 this scale the Boman Catholic children attending the sshools in that colony, founded by their own Cnurch, represent an expenditure of over £90,000 per annum.