THE STATE SCHOOLS OF VICTORIA.
[To THE EDITOR 07 THE " SPECTATOR."] Sin,—The letter of Mr. Pearson in your issue of August 17th is a good example of the temper of Colonial secularists, with which a long residence in New Zealand made me familiar. It is quite like old times to me to see in print again the well. worn sneer at "clericalism," and the charge of hypocritical laziness brought against the clergy for not making use of the "facility for religious teaching after school-hours" so generously allowed to them. This charge always "brings down the house" at a political meeting of Mr. Pearson's friends, but one hardly expected to find it doing duty in a letter to the Spectator, whose readers can see through clap-trap.
Let me explain the nature of this "facility." In the most excellent secular schools of Colonies like Victoria and New Zealand, the children are kept hard at work for five hours. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon they are dismissed by the head-teacher. The school is broken up for the day, and the children are no longer under school discipline. Then, and not till then, is the clergyman allowed to put in an appearance. He may go to the playground and induce as many of the wearied children as he can to follow him back to the schoolroom and receive religious instruction. I need not waste words in showing how ineffective such teaching must be. For several years I had personal experience of it, and looking back upon those years, I now feel that my efforts, if well-meant, were mistaken, and that religious teaching given in such circumstances probably did more harm than good. It is simply not the case that the clergy are allowed to teach "in the State schools." They are allowed the occasional use of the State schoolrooms,—a very different matter.
So far as I know the opinions of the representatives of "clericalism," it is equally not the case that they want the "control" of education in any of our Colonies. They ask for the same facilities for the teaching of Christianity as are given in the Irish National schools,—i.e., that religion may be taught to those children whose parents wish it, in the school, under school discipline.
Secularists may call this claim a piece of "clericalism" if they choose ; but their lofty morality ought to teach them the common fair-play of stating accurately the point at issue.
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