CO129-182 - Governor Hennessy - 1878 [9-12] — Page 39

These ist

adress

The Honorable

THE ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY,

SIR,

&c.,

&c.

78

35

ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSION HOUSE, Hongkong, 10th August, 1878.

On the 18th July last, I had the honour to acknowledge receipt of your letter No. 548 of the 17th ultimo, in which you request me to state, for the information of Her Majesty's Governmont, the grounds of my objections to the Government Scheme of Education and of my refusal to accept, for the schools under my control, any portion of the funds allotted by the Government for educational purposes in this Colony.

I have now the honour to submit, for the consideration of His Excellency the Governor and for the information of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, my objections to the educational policy of the local Government and the grounds of my objections.

I must, however, in the first place, call your special attention to the fact that it is only in reply to a direct application from yourself officially that I make this statement. I am not formulating a complaint. I am not putting forward any claim, as of right, on behalf of the Roman Catholic Schools in this Colony. I am not petitioning for any relief. Our schools have been founded without Government aid and have been brought to their present state solely by the labours and sacrifices of the Catholics themselves under the guidance of their pastors. We hope to be able to carry them on and even to improve them without Gov- ernment aid if Government aid can only be had on terms we cannot conscientiously accept. 1 write now because I assume, from the fact of your having addressed me on the subject, that the Government, finding that a large section of the community is debarred by conscientious motives from availing itself of the undoubted benefits of a government grant for educational purposes, has come to the conclusion that there must be something defective in its educational policy and that it is sincerely desirous of discover- ing and amending the defect. It is in this belief and with an earnest desire to assist the Government to a solution of the educational difficulty that I make this communication and by no means in a spirit of hostility or complaint.

Need I point out, before going further, that in the controversies that have, of late years, arisen out of the great educational movement there are two and but two great parties, diametrically opposed to each other. On the one side are to be found all those, whether Catholics, Protestants or Pagans, who deem moral and religious instruction and training an essential part of education, to be imparted, not merely side On the other side are all those, by side with but combined with instruction in literaturo and science. whether nominal Catholics, Protestants, or Pagans, who, either denying or ignoring religion altogether, or being indifferent to its claims, would absolutely exclude all moral and religious training from the schools. These are the Secularists, a large and well organised party, energetic, determined and aggressive almost be- yond belief.

The Roman Catholic objection to the Government scheme of education is, that it is framed in the interests of and entirely in accordance with the views of this great secularist party and in direct opposition to the conscientions beliefs and opinions of the other party, whom I shall take leave, for convenience sake, to call the Religionists. The secular system of education has been condemned by the Roman Catholic Church. No Catholic can conscientiously send his children to any school conducted on the secular system of education. I do not think, all things considered, that I am unjust in saying that in Hongkong the Government Scheme of Education has been deliberately moulded by secularists in the interests of the secular party and in a spirit of hostility to Roman Catholicism,

The Central School, the main feature in the educational system of the Colony, is avowedly secular. Religion and religious topics are excluded from its books and from its teachings. Its Head Master, who is also the Governinent Inspector of Schools and the Head of the Education Department is, from couviction, a secularist. The Grant-in-aid scheme, prepared by Mr. STEWART, is framed in accordance with secularist ideas and is so worded as to be capable of being worked in a spirit of thorough going hostility to religion and religious teaching.

The history of the Central School is the history of the rise and growth of the secularist spirit in Hongkong. It was at first, a school opened solely to Chinese where, under better masters and with im- proved appliances, instruction in English might be obtained of a higher grade and better quality than was to be had in the Village Schools. In the Central School and in the Village Schools the Bible was read daily and some instruction was given in morality and religion. In March 1862 Mr. STEWART took charge, as Head Master, of the Central School. From 1862 to 1865 he was under the control of a Board of Educa tion of which were members Dr. LEGGE, the Reverend Mr. IRWIN and other clergymen. Under their rule the religious element was still sustained in the schools. This Board ceased to exist in 1865 and the sole management of the Government Schools passed into the hands of Mr. STEWART,

In his first report,

L