THE EDUCATION QUESTION IN VICTORIA.
[To THE ED/TOR OP THY "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—A letter from Mr. Pearson in the Spectator of August 17th defends, with some qualification, the exclusion of certain Christian phrases from school-books in Victoria; and implies, though it does not assert in terms, that parents or guardians have full liberty to give religious instruction to children in school-rooms, outside of school-hours. Mr. Pearson admits that though he officially prescribes mutilated poems (because an edition happened to be on hand), he himself would " never have mutilated the Cotter's Saturday Night' or Long- fellow's Wreck of the Hesperus' to avoid a reference" to Christianity. I am afraid he has long had the credit of having removed from the school-books St. Paul's address on the Hill of Mars, and having substituted for it a description of a cotton-mill. He says,—"We give every facility for religious teaching, after school-hours." This statement is so worded as to convey a false impression to English readers. Space, perhaps, militated against a fuller statement, but the truth is too important to be kept back. As originally introduced, the Victorian Education Bill would have permitted no religious instruction in the schools. An amendment (in the Parliament) provided that it might be given (entirely at the charge of the children's friends) outside of the school-hours,—i.e., either before or after them. Parents and pastors have implored the Education Department to give facility for religious instruc- tion in the school-rooms before school-hours. They have implored in vain. Mr. Pearson's letter shows that he does not, as Minister of Instruction, permit the giving of religious instruc- tion before school-hours. There are many who contend that it is almost a mockery to say that you give facilities at all, if you give them only at an hour when it would be unnatural for the children and inconvenient for the parents to accept them. At any rate, they contend, the Department should concede what the law has provided for. I am not aware whether Mr. Pearson and his friends have altered the original Act, and deprived the Department of the power to permit religions instruction before school-hours. But I imagine not, because if they had no such power, Mr. Pearson would probably have said so. As I have been officially connected with the Education Departments of New South Wales and of Victoria, and deplore the manner in which parents in the latter Colony have been, by merely Departmental action, deprived of the right to give religious instruction to their children before the ordinary school-hours, I write this letter to point out that Mr. Pearson's letter cannot convey to an English reader a fair knowledge of the facts. As to the contention between Mr. Ewing and Mr. Pearson, I say nothing. Each can, no doubt, take care of himself.—I am, Sir, &c., Atheneum Club, August 19th. G. W. RUSDEN.
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