DIOCESE OF AUCKLAND

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 52, 24 December 1903, Page 5

DIOCESE OF AUCKLAND

(From our own correspondent.)

December 17. The Rev. Father Lynch, who was ordained for this diocese, arrived last Sunday from Ireland, via Sydney. This year the retreat for the whole of the Marist Brothers of the Colony will be conducted at the Sacred Heart College, Richmond Road. The Rev. Fathers Barry and Murray of the Redemptorist Order arrived from Sydney last Sunday morning. They will be joined shortly by the Very Rev. Father Q'Farrell, and then they will cdnduct the retreat of the clergy and the religious throughout the diocese. His Lordship the Bishop returned last Sunday in the • Mokoia ' from Napier 'and Gisborne. He had intended coming overlalnd on his motor-car, 'but having got well on his journey heavy rains caused the rivers to rabidly rise, necessitating his journey to Napier to catch the Union liner. The Bishop travelled nearly 400 miles on his car, with which he expresses the greatest admiration. Quite a large number went from town to Huntly last Sunday morning by special train to assist at the blessing and opening of the new Church of St. Anthony there. The success of the function is due entirely to the indefatigable efforts of the parish priest, the Rev. Father O' Gallagher. The visitors from town were enthusiastic over the eloefuent discourse preached on the occasion by the Very Rev. Dean Hackett, of Paeroa. The Very Rev. Dean Lightheart has nearly completed his visitation of the schools of the Maori Mission. Writing from Rotorua to me a few days ago, he said : ' I have commenced my visitation to the various Missions on which our Fathers are stationed. I returned from Natajta last night where I was present at the breaking up of the school. I was very much pleased with what the gjood nuns and the children had done during the past year. If the white people could see some of the paintings and the sewing done by the Maori children, they would be very much surprised.' On Friday last, at the annual distribution of prizes at the Auckland Grammer School, Sir Robert StAout, the Chief Justice, delivered an ill-considered harangue in praise of the godless system of State instruction in this Colony. In the course of his remarks he branded as ' traitors to the Colony ' all those who opposed the gpdlessness of our public school system. At St. Benedict's on Friday evening Bishop Leni'han scarified Su Robert Stout for his uncalled-for and insulting remarks The Bishop said that he was surprised at the uncalledfor insult coming from one in so responsible a position as Sir Robert Stout. He (the Chief Justice) declared that all those who differed from him as regards the mode of education enforced upon the Colony were traitors to their country. He, professedly witholut religious belief, decried the tenets of those who had sacrificed practically their all to enable the children undei their care to be brought lip in a system of faith, which, if carried out, must make them moral and law-aba ding citizens. Catholics had no quarrels with the methods which were ordinarily adopted in the State schools for the teaching of arithmetic, geography, and grammer ; they believed they were as good, often better, than in far older and more pretentious parts of the world. But they saM it was rank rebellion against our good CJod to take the young, {generation, the future men and women of the country, to keep them in. schools all the waking hours of the day for the whole term of their childhood and youth and during that time to rigidly exclude from them all knowledge of tine Supreme Being. A respect for thek teachers was impressed upon the children's mjnds, afri ajßection'ajnd a loyalty, to their country iwere inculcated through every page of their earliest history, an esteem for the Mother Country, and a sisterly attention for the surrounding colonies were, through their reading and other text books, unceasingly instiHed into their hearts. This was, of course, right and just. But from the whole of this training, covering, as it did, the principal years of a child's life, to exclude all mention of God, all recognition of His supremacy, and all instruction as to their duties towards Him, was disloyalty to the Creator and dishonesty to the child. The Catholic Church could not for one single hour be accessory to such a wrong. No plan which clever statesmen could devise to overcome the opposition of the Chiurch had been omitted. Palatial school buildings had been everywhere erected by the State ; scholarships and other large money prizes had been lavishly offered ; but the reply of the Catholics to-day had been all through as that of the Hebjtew children long ago : ' Thy Gods, O King, we will not worship, and before the golden statue we will not bow down.' It was hoped to weary out the faith of the Church and the funds of the people, and statesmen have said : ' It may be a matter of time, bait the Catholics will have to succumb as well as the rest.' But in no place had they succumbed, and least of all, perhaps, here in New Zealand. The Chief Justice in

his speech advised his Wearers to c halve backbone and not to be afraid' to assert themselves, and they should dare to spealc out what they' believed ajnd speajk it homestly, though they might be in the minority.' And yet he laid his curse upon Catholics for acting in this manner. They upheld the law of the land ; bjut how; ha^d it was to respect the interpreters of the law when they insulted Catholics and wounded their most cherished feelings in so wanton a fashion !