Those 'State Reports'

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 32, 10 August 1905, Page 2

Those 'State Reports '

It was a saying of Sir Thomas More that ' the devil is ever ready to put oufy the eyes of those who are content to be 'bf.ind.' It is not, of course, necessarily Beel'.ebub's thumb that forces the eyeballs from the soc- ) ets of all those who would be Wind. Plant a man of normal sight full square before the massive bulk of Mount Cook in the full noonday glare, and he may, if he so choose, close his eyes, or blindfold them, or look at his boot-toes, or turn his glance aside so as not to see. There is none so blind as those that look the other way. The Bible-in-schools leaders are doing this, and trying to get their fat and indolent fingers into the piutAlic eye when they quote approvingly a ' State report ' to the effect that ' there are no sectarian difficulties ' in the New South Wales public schools. But (1) the New South Wales public schools use the discredited Irish text-book of Scripture lessons that was drawn up by Dr. Whately (Anglican) ami Dr. Carlile (Presbyterian) for the express purpose of ' weaning the Irish from the a'Wuses ql Popery.' And our Bible-in-sohools League are not (at present) in favor of tjhe wretched Irish textbook. Their manual is (as Dr. Rentoul has pointed out) in eery respect more objectionable. Again: (2) 'not a single State report ' from New England, for instance, has mentioned the scourging of the boy Whall and tho caningj and expulsion of some four hundred others for refusing to read the Protestant version of the Bible in the schools of Boston. No ' State raport ' ever spoke, even navler its breath, about the infamous penal lawrepealed (on paper) only recently—which made it illegal to employ a Catholic teacher in any public school in (we think) New Hampshire. No ' State report ' gives a hint of the widespread boycott of Catholic teachers which (as we showed in our last issue) is carried on in, thp regions where the schools are sectarianised by the introduction of Protestant forms of prayer ami the reading; and explanation of the Protestant Authorised Versionof the Fcriptures. And, finally, no ' State report ' has? mentioned that Catholic orphans in Massachusetts were openly and systematically proselytised until a few weeks ago when, after long years of agitation, and in thr teeth of angry opposition, an Act was passed in thi* local Legislature giving them—at least on paper—a halting and half-hearted measure of legal protection. There are many rotten things in the statue of Denmark that do not appear in the ' State reports.' * It is intimated by the Bi'ble-in-schools leaders (again on the strength of a ' State report ') that only a ' small percentage ' of the population of New South Wales would probably desire a change from the sectarian character of its public schools. Now Catholics are by no moans a ' small percentage 'of the population of the Mother State. Even if they were, their rights of conscience would be just as sacred as if they were a very large percentage. This is not a matter in which the question of rights is settled by a count of noses. Now Catholics— <as> our BiMe-in-schools clerics well ktmow—have never ceased to protest against the Protestantising of the public schools of New South Wales. Our opponents may not appreciate the grounds of that protest. Even that does not affect the right of the protesters to just and ©qjual treatment. And fair-minded people, no

matter of what creed, should at least respect the strength and sincerity of the conscientious convictions which dictate it, and the heavy sacrifices with which it has been carried out for a generation. If the Bible-in-schools party bad made for one year one-tenth of the sacrifices fcha't Catholics have baen making for thirty, there would be no school difficulty in any part of Australasia to-day. But talk i& cheap. Sacrifice is the real test of sincerity. And Catholics alone lia\e consistently stood this test. Jt seems to be an accepted principle with the clerical agitators of the Bibfo-in-sqhools League that a minority has no rights of conscience that a majority is bound to respect. Dr. Rosobj^ granted that Catholics are opposed to the sectarianism of the public schools in New South Wales. But he couched his statement of the fact in a context which seemed to * imply that their opposition made no great difference anyway, and that it was a negligeable quantity in local educational politics. That is, in substance, the position taken up by the standard-bearers of the sectarianising scheme. They seem to think that it is the duty of Catholics to tarnejy acquiesce in the imposition of a State creed upon the public schools of New Zealand— and for its propaganda to smilingly ' pay, pay, pay.'