Speech by Sir Henry Parkes, K.C.M.G., Delivered at the Opening of a Public School at Blayney, N.S.W.

On visiting Blayney lately, an address of welcome was presented to Sir Henry Parkes by Mr. William Glasson, chairman of the late local board.

Sir Henry Parkes, in the course of a lengthened speech in reply, said that in every school that is opened we were, in a manner, planting a new moral fortress, by which to beat down that ignorance which in times past had so frequently enslaved the tender minds of our children—(cheers); and our Legislature had given convincing evidence that its earliest aim was now that every child in the land should be reached. (Cheers.) These public schools had been called seed-plots. (Laughter.) Well, they were assembled there to plant another seed-plot of national life—(cheers)—a seed-plot by which in the future the qualities which will make the nation of the future will be derived, and without those seed-plots the country would most assuredly go to precipitate ruin. He was not there to combat any other man's opinions, or to enter into any controversy. After quoting largely from statistical returns to show the progress of national educational institutions in the Colony, Sir Henry Parkes said we had an army of upwards of 2000 trained teachers, 1200 schools under rigid inspection, with every provision made for the health of the children, as well as for their moral instruction, and we had this placed within the reach, so far as cost was concerned, of the poorest family in the land. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) He for one was in favor of retaining this system of low fees. He thought it a link of sympathy between the parent and the children, that it kept up the responsibility of the parent to educate the child. Trifling as it might be, it would be something for the poor mother to have to collect her threepences on a Monday morning; it would remind her that amongst her responsibilities there was the responsibility of putting aside some small portion of the income of the house to train her boys and girls into respectable men and respectable women. (Cheers.) And he thought that while the retention of these fees was just, it would be healthy in its moral operation upon the minds of parents of the country, and, at the same time, it would add considerably, though not so largely as hitherto, to the revenues applicable to the purpose of education. Provision was made, however, that if there should be any case where a family could not pay these small fees the Minister of Public Instruction or the Public School Board could remit them and admit the child perfectly free. He was aware that objections had been raised to provisions of this kind, on the score that persons would not like to have a privilege which was not extended to all, and that feeling might exist to some extent; but because that feeling existed in a few instances, surely we were not going to page 29 release the hundreds and thousands of families who could well afford to pay these small fees. Surely it was only just that those who could pay and were anxious to pay, as he believed the majority of parents were, they, at all events, should pay these small fees for the instruction of their children. The address which was presented him alluded to the facilities for religious teaching. He was one of those who did not believe in children growing up without religious teaching. (Hear, hear.) He believed that a secure and sound and lasting faith was essential to all the higher qualities of humanity and to the performance of all the higher duties of citizenship—(cheers)—to say nothing of the pillar which it afforded to the vast majority of men and women when they came to die. To say nothing of that, he believed that men and woman who did not believe in something were likely to slide away to ruin, and therefore he was not in favour of dispensing with religious teaching; but he was not in favour of religious teaching being mixed with the ordinary curriculum of a school, by which the use of figures, the use of letters, and the use of the pencil were to be taught to the children. (Hear, hear.) It was no more necessary to this kind of instruction than it was to teach a child to be a bricklayer or a carpenter. In teaching a child to cast up figures, or to put letters together so as to spell words, and thus acquire knowledge, or to use the pencil to delineate landscapes, it was no more necessary to teach religion than to teach him the use of chisels, or the hammer, or the spade. Of course, true religion would pervade all our actions and walks of life; but no one would ever dream of tolerating the introduction of religious lessons into the workshop, or the brick yard, or the farmer's field; and for acquiring a sound instruction religion was not more necessary. (Cheers.) But this new law allowed any clergyman or religious teacher to go to the school and call the children aside and teach them for an hour every day in the doctrines of their own faith; and he said fearlessly that there was nothing to prevent any sect of religion whatever from availing itself of this advantage, and teaching its own doctrines if it thought well to do so. (Hear, hear.) If there were persons in the community who objected to the Christian religion—happily there were not many; and he was one of those who believed that the conscience of all men should be respected, whatever their belief might be—but if there were parents who objected to the Christian lesson books or to the introduction of the religious teacher during this hour, they had only to state their objection, and their children would not be subjected to the teaching they objected to. (Cheers.) Well, the new law provided for the abolition of denominational schools. He had shown already that the abolition of denominational schools had been steadily going on throughout the last 13 years, that the Act of 1866 provided effectually for the gradual extinction of denominational schools; for he had shown that during the 13 years one-half of them had fallen away, and, moreover, that though page 30 the half which had been retained had been more powerful, better organised, and placed under trained teachers like the public schools, still the aggregate number of pupils had fallen away—that there were not nearly so many pupils attending our denominational schools last year as there were in 1867. He thought that that was a conclusive answer to those who said that the parents of certain religious persuasions would not send their children to the public schools. And what prevented our Roman Catholic fellow citizens from sending their children to these schools? He did not care what might be said by any authority whatever. If the object of our Roman Catholic fellow citizens was to train their children to be good members of society, loyal subjects of the Queen, persons performing the ordinary avocations of life, so as to emulate each other in doing good, if their aim be simply to build a free nation, what objects could they have separate from ourselves? (Cheers.) If they sought salvation, did they not seek it through the same Saviour? (Hear, hear.) If their worship be different from ours in form, was not the great end the same, and what could there be to prevent them sending their children to sit side by side with the Protestant children of the country? (Cheers.) Everybody in this land—every man, be he born in the British Isles, or be he born of this soil—should be something more than sectarian. (Cheers.) He should be an Australian citizen—(loud cheers)—and if his object be to rear his children simply as members of one common society he had a perfect right, which everybody freely granted to him, of training his children in the religious faith he believed in himself; but what possible obstacle would there be in the way of his sending his child to one of these schools to be taught to read, write, and add up figures? (Cheers.) And what was more, he believed that a very large number of the Catholic parents of this country took the same view as he did. (Hear, hear.) If this was not the case how was it that, while the population of this country had increased 60 per cent, in some 13 years, the children attending the denominational schools had decreased, and sensibly decreased? But the vital change that had now been made by which the whole system came under Parliamentary control, could not be viewed without some anxiety; and he ventured to express his sincere hope that Parliament, while exercising a vigorous supervision, would yet be cautious and forbearing in the introduction of the expanded system. He ventured to express a hope that the teachers who hitherto had been, as it were, an independent body, 'would recognise in a large and appreciative spirit their changed position as Civil servants of the Government, and he ventured to express a hope that in the administration of this Act there would be every care and forbearance and precaution used, while the utmost zeal was exercised in carrying out its objects. (Hear, hear.) It was not a work in which we could act rashly, and the more we saw where we were treading before each footstep fell, the page 31 better it would be for the solid and enduring establishment of our public schools. (Cheers.) He ventured to think that the Government had placed the administration of this Act in as safe hands as could possibly be selected, when they had placed them in the experienced hands of Sir John Robertson. (Loud cheers.) He was one of the ablest and most experienced administrators we had, and it was not so much a special knowledge of the work of education as the aptitude for the especial knowledge of administering a Government department which was required at the present time; and he trusted that the Act, after a little time, would be administered so as to add largely to the blessings which the law had hitherto conferred, so as to extend the advantages of education wider and wider and wider, until they reached all our children, and at the same time to improve the quality of this education that it should be equal to any and inferior to none in the world. (Cheers.) Sir Henry Parkes then declared the public school to be open.