ABSTRACT
Religious differences entered my consciousness when I was about ten years old and living in
Ross, a small town on the west coast of New Zealand, where there was a ‘state’ school and
a convent school for Roman Catholics. Before then, I was vaguely aware that I was a Protes-
tant – a Presbyterian. This was brought home to me when an uncle and an aunt both ‘turned’
to marry Catholics, behaviour that upset some of my wider family. Although we state school
pupils looked down on those attending the convent school, just as they probably looked down
on us, it never stopped the boys from both schools playing together. Whether this co-mingling
was because of some degree of religious tolerance or out of necessity occasioned by the small
number of peers, I cannot be sure.
