THE CATHOLIC'S CLAIM TO STATE AID IN EDUCATION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 13, 28 July 1893, Page 18

THE CATHOLIC'S CLAIM TO STATE AID IN EDUCATION.

The following paper was read by T. Lloyd, Esq., B A., at the late annual meeting of tbe Wanganui Educational Institute :—: — Mr president, ladies and gent'emen, — The claim of the Ca holies of tbe Colony Jo a Government grant in aid of tueir schools has for some years attracted and still continues to attract a large amount of attention from the public ; and all of you here present to-day, taking as jou must necessarily do a deep interest in every matter connected with education, have no doubt heard and read and thought much about this claim. I propose to say a few words about our demanue in this matter viewed from the Catholic standpoint. I intend in the first place to explain the principles on which the claim is founded, and then to put before you what it is we are really asking for. And first as to the reasons underlying our demands. We may be asked why we do not send our children to the State schools. We will be told that those schools ar« taught by efficient teachers, and that in them our children will receive excellent instruction in all the branches of secular learning, t-iat our ■0)8 and daughters, after having graduated at these schools, will be fitted to fill with credit the positions to which in after life they may respectively be called. We fully admit the efficiency of the Stale schools and the quality of the instruction Uere imparted, but w* say there is something more required. The education gicen in the State echools is purely secular. Now this is where our difficulty lies. In order to make clear this difficulty 1 must explain a little of Catholic doctrine. I am not going to preach the Catholic religion to you, but our objection to the State schools is so bound up with tbe faith we profess tbat it is impossible to explain our position without introducing religion. Our position, then, is this. We hold that a man's education should fit him for his end. Now, we do not believe that man's cud is to become cultured and refined, to acquire wealth and power, and to rise to the highest

position in the land. No, we believe that he ba9 a higher and a nobler destiny. Oar faith teaches us that man's end is to know, lova and serve God here in order to be happy with God for ever hereafter, We believe that the knowledge of his Creator and his noble destiny is more necessary to the child than any other know* ledge; we hold that a knowladge of these great truths should taicß the first place in any courg° o' in«tmc''Vtn Wrt ar« convinced, too, tba 1 apart from religion there can ba no true moral training, that all morality in founded on the principles enunciated by Moses in the Decalogue, that greit and universal code of morals which was amplified and confirmed by Jesus Christ in the New Testament. It ia oar ccnric'i°n that withorr a knowledge of th-se moral principles onr sons and daughters cannot be elucated so as to discharge well the duties which in after years will devolve upoa them as citizens and as members of society. The Catholic parent hold?, too, that it is a sacred duty to hand down intact io his chil lrf>n the faith which he has received from his forefathers. Believing, then, what we do, can we Catholics, without violating our consciences, send our children to Echools in which the name of God is ntver mentioned, and from which the Gospel of Jesus Christ is excluded? Manifestly we cannot, Our objection, then, to the stcular system of education is one founded on conscientious scruples. The Catholic advocacy of the union of religion with education is no new-fangled notion peculiar to the present day, it is as old as the Catholic Church itself. On reading history we find that Catholic children have in eveTy age been taught in schools presided over and managed by priests, monks, and nuns by those who have devoted their lives to the service of God in religion. Nor is it in New Zealand alone that Catholics oppose secular education ; in every country in the world we find our coreligionistß to-day taking the same stand. We are acting consistently then with the traditions of our Church. That we are sincere in oar convictions is abundantly proved by our standing aloof from the schools of which we cannot approve, and by the great sacrifices we have made and are daily making to establish schools of our own. Of this, I wi.l cay more later on. Seeing the& that our refusal to use the secular system is so well founded are we not deserving of some recognition at the hands of the State? We pay our share of the taxes of tbe country and bear our burdens equally with other citizen?, and we are, therefore, entitled to equal rights with other citizens, Ihey pay their money, and tie State gives them » sjstem of education which they can use and enjoy. We equally pay our money, but the State will not give us schools which we can use. There is where the injustice comes in. The State undertakes to educate all ita children and receives the money of the people for that purpose, but it omy carries out its undertaking with one class and leaves another class unprovided for. " But," we will be told, " you are free to send your children to State schools, we do not exclude them." We may as well be told " you may 83nd your ehi'dren to the Protestant Church, the Protestants will not exclude them." The result to our children in each case wou d be the same, viz — the loss of failh which we prize so deariy. Some wili, perhaps, he inclined to say that wa may make use of the State schools and instruct our children in their religion at the same tim°, that instruction in religion may be given by the parents at home, and by the priest on Sundays. But we should soon find that very little knowledge of religion could be imparted in this way. llow nuny parents have the ability to impart such instruction, and even granting they ha'i the ability, where is the time ? The vast majority of parents in New Zealand are too much taken up with the pressing duties of their avocations in life to be aole to give much attuotion to such matters, and as to the instructions given for an hour or two by the priest on Sunday, they would be almost effaced from the minils cf the pupils by the secular teaching given in the schools on the other five days of the week. Suppose we were to treat any secular subject in this way, what would be the result ? Suppose, for an initancs, that arithmetic were left to ba taught by the parents at home and by tbe pnest on Sundays, how many pupils would ever acquire sufficient knowledge of the subject to pass even the first standard ? The suggestion is absurd, and , worse thaa that, it is putting religion in the back ground, putting God below the creature — a position revoltmg to the Catholic conscience, Many outside our body pee and admit the justice that is done us, but they object to our getting any grant because, they say, other denominations would at occe ask ,or a eimil-tr grant, aod so the Sta'e system of education would be destroyed. There is a great fallacy underlying this objection, because if it be irua that other dei.ominntions are so ready to ai-k fjr a grant 1 1 order to es'abliah ac\oo!s uf their own, then the great m jority of tbe colonists can h<uv uj love for \hs tejalar sy-tein. s.nce they are so ready to depart from it. Bu: we kao f that th s 13 00' t!u case ; we know the majority (if tba p -oplu >ra determined ty ma n'uia that aystern. It ia now sixteen years since the piLS 'nt E iuc^tion Act came into force, and during those sixteen years all the otaer denominations have accepted it aud sent their children to the State schools almost without demur. More than this; we find maoy of their ministers taking their Beats on echool CDmmittees and education boirds and bearing an active part ia the administration of the system. They have made no protest worthy of the rame.they have not backed up such feeble protests a 9 they have made by anything like Belf-Bacrince, as the Catho-

lics have done. They have taken the State schools and used them for sixteen years, and they are perfectly satisfied with them. It is not reasonable to suppose, then, that those who have found the State system sufficient all tleie years will begin to find it insufficient for their wants, merely because Catholics have got a gran. Kven if other denominations were to demand a gr*nt, the Btate would be perr^p?y justific i ia refusing it, because they cannot, like Catholics, show tost they have any reasonab'e objection to the existing system. The granting of State aid to Catholic schools, instead of weakening the present system, would rather tend to strengthen it, because it would allow a larjre body of citizens, now excluded, to participate in its benefits, and would tend to make the State system to be in reality what its friends wish it to be, a truly national system of education. An additional benefit, too, would accrue to ihe echools. The State system, like all other State systems, suffers from want of competition. Now the endowment of Catholic schools would create a wholesome rivalry, and every teacher knows the great value of a healtby rivalry in school work. Bchoole in the same district would be examined by the same inspector, results would be compared, both classes of schools would strive to attain the highest results, und thus a powerful stimulus would be given to education. The Catholics in New Zealand number about 86,000, or one seventh of the entire population, yet out of the large sum ot money voted every year for education, they receive nothing. We are excluded almost entirely from the administration of the Education Act. In the three University Colleges of Dunedin, Christchurch, and Auckland, there is not, so far as I can ascertain, one Catholic Professor. In the secondary or high schools there is not one Catholic teacher, and in the public schools Catholic teachers are represented by one half per cent. Over £400,000 is spent every year on education, and in the disbursement of this large sum we are treated as outcasts an 1 aliens, we receive not one penny, and this in tbe nineteenth century, and ia a free and fiberty-loviig country. As soon as the present Act became law the Catholics commenced to build their own schools, and tbose schools have gone ou steadily increasing in number ever since. Our own town of Wanganui always had Catholic schools. At first these achoo's were taught by lay teachers. About thirteen years ago tbe Bisters of St Joseph came over from Australia to take charge of the Girls' Schools of which there are two, one, the parish school ; another, the High school. The M'irist Brothers, n religious Order of teachers, will be here shortly to take charge of the boys' school. There has b3"n here a decided advance with the times during the last thirteen yeirg, and the number of pupils has also increased. It is the same in the adjacent districts, Palmerston North and Hawera. Botb have convents and boys' schools, It ia the same in every other part of tbe Colo ny. In all the large centres there are convents which are, like the oanvant in Wangiaai, High schools for girls. Ia Wellington we have St Patrick's College. In other large centres we have High schools for boy 9. In any town of any importance we have parish schools for boys as well as the girls' scboole taught by tha Nuqs. The sun of money ppent by ua for sites and for buildings is very great. 1 regret lam not able to give the exact figures, and tbe annual expenditure for maintenance is also a large one. The Co3ta of sites and buildings in the diocese of Christchnrch alone, up to about two years ago, was £55,000, und the expenditure has increased since then, Thore are 3 other Catholic dioceses, and ia each the expenditure hag been equally large. Tue number of children attending our schools is 13,000, and if we were to send them to the State schools it would cost the Colony £40,000 toeduca'e them This Bum we save the Colony by our devotion and earnestness in the cause of education. Surely our convictions mast be sincere when we make such sacrifices to support then™. Our schools are equal in efficiency to the State schools, and in many instances superior to them. Of the Wanganui Convent School I can speak with confidence, having taken part in tbe Christmas examinations for several years pa t. Of the local boys' school I can say this, that it is now under the charge of a gentleman who for several years in Nelson gained the moß^ favourable reports under the examination of Mr Hoigson, the Government inspector for the Nelson Education Board . One very marked proof of the efficiency of ourschoolsisthe fact that they are largely at terj. ded by children of non-Uathohc parents who caanot be actuated by any religious preference for tbem. What, then, do we ask for from tbe State? We ask that ourowj money be given us for our own schools. But we ask that money only on this condition : that we first satisfy the State that we are imparting tbe same secular knowledge which is imparted to pupils attending iha Government schools. And aH to the degree of this secular knowledge, aad as to our methods of imparting it, we say the State's officer, the Government inspector of schools for the district, should be tbe judg>. We do not want to take the public money aua spend it in maintaining schools which are not up to tha standard of efficiency require! by the State ; on tbe contrary, we are prepared to satisfy every reqeuremsnt of the S ate as to secular instruction, and we mo prepared to abide by the decision of the Government inspectors If our schools do not satisfy the inspectors, we are prepared to forego our grant. And if, in addition to doing all that the State requires iv our schools, we, for the sake of our own consciences, do something more than the State require-*, who can

complain ? Our claim ia a reasonable and a jost one. We do not wish to interfere with those who believe in the secular system and use it, we merely ask th&t justice be Jone to ourselves.