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As the first Europeans were settling on the Liverpool Plains and spreading with their sheep onto the Tableland, the government in Sydney wrestled with the problems of providing elementary schooling for children in small towns and on isolated farms, far from the reach of bureaucracy and the churches. By 1848 the government was able to overcome weakening resistance from some of the churches and to introduce a system of 'national' schools alongside subsidised church (denominational) schools. The national schools, although sometimes described as secular, were really non-denominational Christian schools, seeking to inculcate a 'common Christianity' - a notion hotly rejected by Catholic and most Anglican churchmen. |
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