CANADIAN SCHOOL TROUBLE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXII, Issue 1, 3 May 1895, Page 17

CANADIAN SCHOOL TROUBLE.

JB&!|gg£ HE RE is trouble in the matter of education in <fflM^yKv Manitoba, and the Dunedin Evening Star, 3SK(||fe^'o always to the front when anything derogatory to j&b^bJE the Catholic Church or Christian education in vwsK^jp America is concerned, hastens to record the fact. j^n^v* The news that the Provincial Legislature seems , disposed to resist the "remedial order "of the Governor-General in Council, is wired from * Auckland to our contemporary on the arrival of the 'Frisco mail. We are of strong opinion that the joy of secularists at the prospect of extinguishing separate schools for Catholics in Manitoba will be short lived. Even, if the Legislature of the Province disregard the order to restore the state of things before 1890 and the separate school system, article 93 of the British North America Act of 1863, gives power to the Dominion Parliament to pass a " remedial law," and constitutionally force the recalcitrant Provincial Legislature in matters affecting the " rights or

privileges of the Protestant or Roman Catholic minority of the Queen's subjects in relation to education." Our DuDedin contemporary, regardless of expense, keeps us well informed — on one side of the quewlion — of what transpires iv American education circles. It quotes the answer of Manitoba as contained in an inspired article in the Government organ. '■We shall not allow the State to support religion ; we shall not allow a Church to control the State ; wg shall not return to the civilisation of tbe dark sgea ; we shall Dot recognise Rome as better than, or in any way different from, others ; we shall hold to the principle of equal rights fur all, and that principle shall be dearer to us than confederation itself." This stuff will, no doubt, give pleasure to many readers of the Star, which often accords honoured place to the sentiments here expressed. We doubt very much if the Canadian Parliament will be influenced by the harsh cries of political mischief makers. Ontario has heard for many years the shibboleths of interested partizans, and by her law giving the Catholic minority the benefit of separate schools has shown that she heeded it not. The education laws, which have worked so well in Upper and Lower Canada and in Manitoba will not be changed whatever the patrons of godlessness may say or do. The satisfactory working of the school law in Manitoba Itself before 1890 may be seen in an extract from the report published a few years ago, of Mr J. B. Somerset, superintendent of Protestant schools of the Province. " A word regarding the law itself may be appropriate here. It was first placed upon the statute book in 1871, and was founded upon the principle of the establishment of Protestant and Roman Catholic echoolß, each governed and managed independently. This fundamental principle being embodied in the Imperial and Dominion acts for the organisation of the province, the question as to its correctness is outside the scope of practical discussion ; but in connection with its workings during the last seventeen years it may be pointed out that tbe schools of tbe province ha»e been managed without a particle of the denominational friction that has caused disturbances, and bitterness in other provinces of the Domin'on. Our Roman Catholic fellow-citizens have, under this law, their own schools, available for religious as well rs secular teaching, which is a principle invariably contended for by them ; and those charged with the management of them are accountable to their people for their efficiency. On the other hand, Protestant schools are untrammelled in the introduction of such Christian teaching, including the daily reading of the Bible, as may be found practicable, and which the growing sentiment of the people recognises as holding an important place in the development of the child's nature." Who are causing the present friction and education trouble ? Secularists, who hate Christianity in any form, and sectarians, who hate Catholicity and wish to minimise the influence of the Church. Public statements like that of a Methodist minister in Massachusetts who said not long ■ ago that 1,800,000 children had in twelve years been lost to the Catholic Church through the influence of the public schools only increase the diabolical efforts of rabid members of the A.P.A. They have not succeeded in the purpose in Ontario and Quebec. Now they try to insert the thin edge of the wedge in Manitoba. They will not succeed. The Canadian Parliament has an object lesson in the equitable treatment of the Protestant minority in Quebec where Catholics are five 01 six times more numerous. By successive Acts from 1841, the first year of the Home Rule Parliament, to 18G3, when the British North America Act was passed, the trend of legislation was generally to protect the minority, Catholic or Protestant, and authorise separate schools when required by householders. In Protestant Ontario five Catholic householders (or five Protestant, if they wish to establish a separate school for their denomination, but they don't wish) may convene a meeting of persons desirous of having a separate school. They appoint trustees to manage the school, to levy school rates on the Catholic inhabitants, who become at once exempt from municipal school taxes. Each sepaiate school becomes entitled to a proportional share of all public school grants made by the legislature. It is significant that no Protestant denomination has availed itself of the Act to establish separate schools in upper Canada. Ihe public schools suit them admirably, as public schools would still suit them if private schools by similar arrangement were publicly authorised in New Zealand. Canadian experience does not lend weight to the arguments that the Protestant majority would demand and establish denominational schools if our Catholic schools were equitably treated. To quote Upper Canada to show how Catholics avail themselves i of the provisions of the Act : In 1841 there was , one separata school ; now there are about 3(JO in the pro- , vince. The usual cry about the inefficiency of non-public schools , has been often raised. The words of a prominent ■ education official and a pronounced opponent of Catho-

lic Bchools, Rev Dr Ryerson, may be appositely quoted : "As far back as 1858 "he said, "in connection with these separate schools, our public school system has been developed, and has advanced and extended beyond precedent or parallel in any count./. In a few rural sections some temporary or local inconvenience may be experienced from them, but in cities and towDS it may be questioned whether the character and efficiency of the public schools are not rather promoted by the existence of separate schools." In the report of the Minister of Education for 1887, the following woids occur :—": — " From the reports of inspectors . . . . it will be seen that the separate schools are steadily prospering, and that, both as regards teachers and pupils, they are becoming more and more efficient every year." * In Quebec the system is practically denominational ; a Catholic Board managing the Catholic schools, and a Protestant Board managing the schools of the Protestant minority. Though Catholics are in the majority in Quebec it is well to bear in mind Catholics have not been in a majority in the Canadian Parliament. Protestants appealing for continued justice to their co-religionists in Quebec, have helped to conserve the arrangement meting oat justice to the Catholic minority in Ontario. The bogey, set up so often here that the State must riot pay to teach religion, does not frighten the sensible Protestants of the Dominion. They see that the funds which separate school trusts disburse would not pny for Becular instruction were there not question of Catholic heroism and devotion in the cause of education. If we received substantial aid for the schools in New Zealand built and equipped by ourselves out of our own coney, we should not be adequately paid for the secular instruction imparted, even if we received the same allowance as the public schools. Ihe debt of New Zealand to the Catholic body in the matter of instruction in secular matters is so great that no matter what happens it will never bo truthfully said that the State contributes to religious education. The interest of the money wrung from the Catholics of New Zealand since 1877, to support a system of education of which they cannot avail themselves, would make a large endowment for the Catholic schools of the Colony.