164 A HISTOKY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



examined a large number of expert witnesses, debated an enormous 

 mass of evidence, and brought up an exhaustive and entirely un- 

 animous report, accompanied by a draft Bill to give effect to their 

 recommendations. On the question of gratuitous education they 

 were emphatic in their dissent, believing that there was nothing in 

 the circumstances of the community to warrant its general applica- 

 tion. The main points of their proposals were : 



Legal provision making instruction of children compulsory 



upon parents. 



Appointment of a responsible Minister of Public Instruction. 

 Establishment of public schools from which sectarian teaching 

 shall be excluded by express legislative enactment, and in 

 which religious teaching shall be in like manner sanctioned 

 and encouraged. 



Establishment of a training school for teachers. 

 A separate grant for aiding instruction in rural districts to 



aborigines and Chinese, and for ragged schools. 

 And, finally, as the proposed fees were small and liable in 

 many cases to remission, the system could not be self- 

 supporting ; therefore it was suggested that the expense 

 should be borne by a special tax on land in aid of public 

 instruction. 



When the Bill was submitted to the Assembly it met with an 

 uncompromising opposition. The principal speakers against it were 

 Messrs. Ireland, O'Grady, Gillies and Langton, while its supporters 

 were few and feeble. Mr. Higinbotham made a brilliant defence, 

 but his eloquence and earnestness made no impression ; so many 

 members intimated their desire to join in the attack that Mr. 

 McCulloch backed down and suggested its withdrawal. Eeluc- 

 tantly Mr. Higinbotham recognised failure, and as he stood for the 

 whole Bill and no compromise he withdrew it. The agitation on 

 the subject was not allowed to die out, and a growing class de- 

 manded an entire divorce between secular and religious teaching. 

 The rationalist party contended that the latter could not be given 

 without encouraging sectarianism, nor without violating some one's 

 conscientious scruples. In this attitude, strange to say, they found 

 support from the Churches, whose ministers declared that it was 



