AN INJUSTICE TO CATHOLIC SCHOOLS

New Zealand Tablet, 22 December 1910, Page 2101

AN INJUSTICE TO CATHOLIC SCHOOLS

His Lordship Bishop Grimes, speaking at the prize distribution at the Sacred Heart Convent High School, Christchurch, on Thursday, December 15, referred to the amended Education Act of last session. The Catholic Church (said his Lordship) had always been attacked and its people had always to make sacrifices. In the Dominion the parents of children had to make sacrifices in order to allow their children to be educated in Catholic schools. A reference to a recent Blue Book would show what a large amount of money was spent on the education of children whose parents could well afford to pay for it. The Catholic people had to pay for their schools, and though the Government allowed them to have the schools, it was a great work to get the authorities to allow the children to be examined by Government inspectors. The legislation passed last session he could only characterise as an insult added to injury. 'We have been suffering long and supinely,' said his Lordship, ' like worms trembling, and now we have to seek justice. The forty-two school inspectors in the Dominion recently held a conference. They are educated, upright, and conscientious men, and these men came to the conclusion that the parents of children at Catholic schools should have fair play. Our schools are well conducted and efficient. I have seen the reports of some inspectors, and they have said repeatedly that it is impossible to find words to express their admiration for the manner in which the schools are conducted by the nuns. These inspectors de-

cided that Education Board scholarships won by pupils in secondary schools should be held in the same schools. Forty of the forty-two'inspectors favored that view. But according to the latest legislation, though a child at a denominational school may win a scholarship, it has to go elsewhere to hold it. St. Patrick’s College during its existence has saved the Government £175,000, and has not received one penny from the State, which is giving capitation grants to high schools, where the parents can pay for the children just as readily as our Catholic parents. It seems so unfair that though you prove to the world that your children are fitted to win these scholarships they have to go elsewhere after gaining them, and schools that have had no real hand in the training, in the laying of the foundation of their education, gain all the credit. I have hopes still that the local Education Boards will feel urged by a sense of justice to let the scholarships be held in our schools as they should be. Some of our devoted nuns are as qualified to teach as the best in any part of the Dominion, but yet there is an opposition to them. In one district, I won’t name it, the nuns started a Catholic school, and many of the good people of other denominations sent their children to it, because they knew that in addition to the education, they would be greatly benefited by the holy atmosphere they would find among the Sisters. They knew that no effort would be made to convert their children to the Catholic faith; but before long we find that a high school was opened in opposition to the convent. It has a head teacher who receives £3OO, and his labor is worth it, but he has only twelve pupils, and these nuns, who can do the work as well, cost the Government nothing. It is cruelly unfair to us, and I fear that we will not get much consideration.’