LETTERS TO THE EDITOR..

THE STATE SCHOOLS OF VICTORIA AND DR. DALE.

[TO TH1 EDITOR OF TRH " SPECTATOR:1

SIB,—As a constant reader of the Spectgtor, would you kindly permit me a word or two in correction of some remarks on the educational system of Victoria, which I see Dr. Dale, of Birmingham, has been making in the Contemporary Review?

Dr. Dale is a highly intelligent and candid observer. But most of our visitors, historians, divines, and others, are generally betrayed into some hasty generalisations for which we are made to suffer. On the subject of secular education, moreover, Dr. Dale is known to have a distinct bias. Dr. Dale evidently thinks that he has found in Victoria a system after the " Birmingham " model. He speaks in flattering terms of it, and in somewhat severe terms of those who, he says, have stigmatised it as "godless." He totally mistakes, however, the charges that have been made against it. He speaks of a visit to a State school in company with the present Minister of Education in Victoria, where he heard the children sing " God Save the Queen," and also a hymn which contained some rudimentary natural theology.

But no competent critic has called our present system "godless." There is a "thin Theism" left in the National- school books, though it has been seriously proposed to make this a little thinner by omitting any "statements that might be offensive to our Chinese fellow-citizens " !

What the assailants of this ultra-secularistic system main- tain is not that it is "godless," as Dr. Dale seems to think ; but that it is anti-Scriptural and anti-Christian in its tendency.

Readers of Lon gfellow's "Wreck of the ' Hesperus " know the verse

Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed

That saved she might be, And she thought of Christ who stilled the wave On the Lake of Galilee."

This verse has been expunged, owing to its obvious dogmatic bias !—and all similar references to Christ and Christianity have been removed. Messrs. Thomas Nelson and Sons, of Edin-

burgh and New 'York, are obliged to bring out a special edition of their school series for this Colony, carefully purged of all taint of Christian fact and sentiment. The Education Department, finding that some ethical instruction was almost essential, introduced a text-book on morals by a Mr. Hack- wood. It is rather a dreary compendium of a utilitarian type. In a note, however, at the commencement, the teacher is recommended to " enforce and illustrate the lessons by suitable references to Holy Scripture." This was regarded by the Department as a dangerous concession, and the teachers were informed by circular that they were not to follow the recom- mendation.

A child in a Victorian State school had to answer the question at a recent examination,—" Why should we obey our parents P" The little thing foolishly put in a reference to the Fifth Commandment. The Inspector was sorry, but he had no

option ; he could not give any marks. The proper answer

was,—" Because they feed, clothe, and educate me." In keeping with this was an incident which occurred a little time ago. In an " up-country " school which was allowed to be used for divine service, the clergyman failed to appear on a Sunday. In his absence, the teacher read a sermon to the people who had come together. This was a serious offence, for which he was fined 25. Little wonder that Dr. Moorhouse, of Manchester, who was then Bishop of Melbourne, spoke bitterly of the "brutal muzzle of the Education Act."

These are merely one or two out of a large number of facts which a longer residence in Victoria might have enabled Dr.

Dale to collect. And they are not to be set aside because the children in a State school sang the Queen's anthem lustily for the gratification of a visitor from England.

If there are any English educationists still hankering after the "Birmingham system," it is well that they should know what its logical results have proved in our sad experience to be. The friends of Scripture education, who are fighting hard to break the dominance of the present ultra-secularistic system, and secure as much Scripture reading in the schools of Victoria as is found to work quite smoothly in the schools of New South Wales, feel hurt that the weight of Dr. Dale's respected name should be thrown into the scales against them.—I am, Sir, &c.,

Toorak, Melbourne, March 28th. J. F. EWING.