In this colony Colonel Arthur had established a superior school (1834),
under the governorship of official persons. The episcopal system was to
rule: the children of others were eligible, provided they submitted to
catechetical instruction. The plan of the school was suggested by Dr.
Broughton, and was calculated on the idea of an ecclesiastical relation
to the colony, which subsequent enactments disturbed. Colonel Arthur
found serious obstacles in carrying out the scheme, and he suffered it
to drop. The Rev. Mr. Rusden was nominated first master; but the
question of religion was again fatal to its success: the school sunk
into a private establishment.
The project of Colonel Arthur was succeeded by another more extensive in
its aim. Sir John Franklin addressed Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, describing
the religious elements of the colony, and requesting the arrangement of
details for the future management of an establishment. The great
difficulty was still the ecclesiastical relations of the settlers. Dr.
Arnold suggested a double chaplaincy, and a religious education rather
than a merely secular system; and recommended that the head master
should be permitted to take orders. Mr. G. P. Gell, of Cambridge
University, was nominated principal.
In 1840, the legislative council sanctioned the establishment of a
college and the erection of buildings. The cost was variously estimated
from L12,000. The Queen's school, intended to be afterwards a
preparatory institution, was first formed. The denominational leaning of
the college awakened considerable opposition. The Roman catholic
vicar-general declared that the authorised version of the scriptures was
a mutilation, and compiled to suit the views of the translators; that
catholics could not pray with protestants; and urged other objections,
not new to theologians, but which appeared outrageous to a colony
accustomed to a liberal intercourse. The presbyterians prayed for
religious equality, and other sects joined in the general aversion to an
episcopal institution at the public cost.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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