THE PETITION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 51, 19 April 1895, Page 17

THE PETITION.

SLXT Sunday — the first Sunday after Easter— was fixed upon by the conference of the New Zealand hierarchy as a suitable day on which to make a beginning in the matter of preparing and signing petitions from the Catholic body to the House of the Legislature. It is of greatest importance that every Catholic, male and female, of an age to sign this petition, should immediately do 00. When signed, the petitions will be forwarded by the clergyman of the district to the ordinary of the diocese. The Archbishop of Wellington, to whom they will ultimately be Bent, will arrange for their presentation in Parliament. rr J he text of the petition has been already published in our columns and in most of the secular journals. It is familiar to our readers. It prays Parliament to so legislate that Education Boards will be bound, by the clear terms of the Act, to immediately grant the request on application being made for public inspection of private schools. Though many hold that the Boards are now legally bound to grant the desired inspection when asked by the authorities of private schools, there are those who hold that the matter is optional with Education Boards. The easiest way to settle the question is to ask Parliament to make the Act so clear that theie shall be no mistake about its meaning. Ihe Timaru Herald, in a recent editorial, thus refers to the subject : " The construction pot by the Conference 03 the provisions of the Education Act, rslating to the inepection of schools other than those established and maintained by the State, appears to us to be a reasonable one. The words of the Act are :-' Where the teacher or managers of any private school desire to have their school inspected by an inspector [appointed under the Ac] such teacher or manager may apply to the Board to authorise such inspection, and the same when autborhed, shall be conducted in like manner as the inspection of public schools. 1 It is clearly optional whether such application shall be made or not, bat it is not equally clear that it is optional or intended to be optional, with a Board of Education to authorise the inspection or refuse it. The words used are 'not 'if authorised ' but ' when authorised,' and it may be contended that the legislature meant Ibe authorisation to follow as a matter of course, and to imply merely the issuing of the necessary instructions to ihe inspector who is the servant of tne B ard and could not extend the ordinary sphere of his duties without receiviDg instructions from his employers to do so. This question of whether private schools shall or shall not be inspected by the officers of the Boards of Education is not cne which can properly bo left to ba answered by local authority. If the managers of private schools caa obtain such inspection in one part of the Colony, it ought to be obtainable every where, and it should not be in the power of the Education B.ard to stand in the way. However, as the Act is not very clear on the point, and the <Ji.tbolicB have been unable to secure the inspection of their schools 111l 11^ 1 ! dlBtri ? tB » the 7 have adopted the proper course in addr.BdinK the legislature.' "

Jho petition, now ready for signature, does not merely contain a request for public inspection of private schools. It asks Parliament to take the whole question of Catholic education into consideration. *v ♦ " We u e( % to renew »" Bft y th e Bishops, " our oft-repeated request that our schools receive from the taxes which we pay, substantial aid on account of the undoubted excellent secular instruction imparted in our schools Our aim ia asking for this aid is neither to destroy tbepresent public system of education nor to impair ita efficiency, butia aim ply a reqneet on oar part for justice to our own schools, and for a fair participation in the expenditure of the moneys contributed by ourselves. •* The annual inspection of Catholic schools by Board Inspectors will certainly place our children on a footing of equality, as Ur as school certificates are concerned, with other children in the Colony. Public inspection will not, however, mean public recognition of the justice or' our claims. We do not think it will very appreciably help on the great cause for which we labour and which eooner or later is bound to triumph. Our school* are already wcognised nurseries of learning and good citizenship. Our fellow-citizens must be made to see and feel that our claim for monetary aid is just and in the interests of society itself. With our brethren in other lands we must with zeal and earnestness continue to fight the good fight. Carelessness in so sacred a cause is next to criminal.