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354 CHAPTER XV.

education of children in Western Australia was carried on in what were called Government schools, quasi National. The teaching in the Government schools was upon the Irish system in reference to the great number of Roman Catholic immigrants within the colony, whose children, it was supposed, would form the majority of the pupils. The concession thus made, of leaving out all distinctive religious instruction in the general course of education, met with as cold a reception abroad as it has done at home from those whom it was intended to please. The Roman Catholic clergy discouraged the children of their flock from attending any schools excepting those which had been established by themselves, and both priests and laity naturally felt aggrieved at having to