INVERCARGILL.

New Zealand Tablet, Issue 44, 8 March 1895, Page 15

INVERCARGILL.

(From an occasional Correspondent.)

March 2, 1895. The BncceßS in the public examinations just concluded of pupils attending Catholic schools, must be very gratifying to all who have the interests of religion and morality at heart. From all par's of tbe Colony came tiding? of success, ani in this city of tbe s< uth we have, in the person of Master A. W. Macdonel, to record one more to the already long list of successful cacdidates, Master Macdonel, son of Sergeant Macdonel, who has passed the Junior Civil Service Examination this year, was educated at St Mary's Boys' School here, and it i& certainly very creditable to him to present himself from a primary school and pass the examination jnst mentioned. In these times when we are told f eely that our schools are incompetent, It ought to make censorious critics a little more reserved to consider that when our children do present themselves for public examinations in which there c&n be no doubt of the standard of proficiency, they invariably compare favourably with those presented from other schools. When it is further considered tbat Catholic parents throughout the Colony have not only to pay their share of tbe cos of maintaining public schools, bat also to support school? of their own, and tbat pupils from their own schools can hold tbeir own in the public examinations of the Colony, the fact is an enduring monument to tbe devotion and self-sacrifice ot Catholics and to the callousness of those who oppose their claims, We do not ask anything in charity, we ask nothing in sympathy, but we demand a Bhare of Ihe education grant of the Colony as our inviolable right. That ia a right which has been recognised in Ireland and is being recognised in England, for a recent number of a leading educational organ Bays :—": — " Tbe tendency of public feeling in England is growing' more and more in favour of a grant to denominational schools.' Meanwhile we must " learn to labour and wait " and to turn out students capable of passing tbe public examinations.

The Irish Athletic Society have received a record entry for their Sheffield Handicap, no less than forty-four competitor having been nominated for the event. The entries appear in tbe local papers. The handicappers have bad an arduous task in apportioning the starts to the 44 competitors, and the results on the convincing day cannot fail to be interesting.