THE DEMAND FOR A REFER. ENDUM.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1844, 2 September 1913, Page 6

THE DEMAND FOR A REFER. ENDUM.

The Bible-in-Schools League carried its campaign an important step forward yesterday when it approachccl the Prime Minister to urge upon him the justice of its claim that the question of introducing Bible lessons into the State schools should be decided by the ■ votes of the people. • The difficulty of many who, like ourselves, believe that the best : means of settling the question raised by the League js to refer it to the people themselves at the bal-lot-box has been to secure reasonable assurance that the demand for a referendum is sufficiently general to justify Parliament in taking action. We have urged that before the Government and Parliament could be expected to accede to the wishes of the League it was necessary that the League should produce proof that a substantial section of the public desired that a vote should bs taken on the lines proposed. The proofs which Canon Garland, organising secretary of the Biblc-in-Schools movement, laid before the Prime Minister yesterday will, we imagine, astonish both Parliament and the country. It was, of course, well known that the League organiser had been working very energetically, but no one, we should think, could have had any idea that in the comparatively short time at his disposal lie, and those working "with him, would have been able to secifre over 111,000 signatures of adult citizens attached to a demand for a referendum. The resolutions of tho various bodies and organisations associated with the Churches might reasonably have been looked for\varcl to, but the signatures of practically one-fifth of the whole of the electors of the Dominion—for that is what the total represents— afford a'quite unexpected testimony to tho strength of the movement. This is further added to by tho offer of the organiser of the League to submit the whole or any section of the signatures to any test which the Government or any member of Parliament might choose to make as a proof of their The opponents of the Bible-in-Schools League, it must be borne in mind, have been very energetically and very ably fighting against the movement, and the succcss so far sccured by the League has been gained in face of this' opposition. In these circumstances it must be clear to everyone that Parliament cannot afford to ignore the weight of opinion behind the demand of the Biblc-in-Schools League for a referendum on the question of Bible lessons in State schools. It is quite possible that the result of the poll may be adverse to those who wish their children to have

the opportunity of receiving Bible lessons, but the only method of clearly ascertaining the will of the people on the subject is by affording the electors the opportunity of expressing their views through the ballotbox on straight-out issue. The

Prime: Minister in his reply to the deputation yesterday did not throw any light on the intentions of the Government, beyond confirming his previously-expressed declaration that, nothing would be done during the present session. Ministers apparent-

ly have decided that, so far as the Government is concerned, the matter must stand over until next session. But what then ? It is most undesirable that the Biblc-in-Schcols question should be made a political issue at the next general election; there are already prospects of quite sufficient party issues to confuse the situation without the addition of a further disturbing element. If Parliament does not accede to the request for a referendum, it can bo taken for granted that the Bible-in-Schools question will be made an issue at the general election, and one which is likely to prove most embarrassing to the different political parties, and in many cases to the electors themselves. Plainly, in the circumstances, the proper course to pursue is to make certain that next session, if not this, legislation will be passed to give the people the right to say in a direct way whether they arc for or against Bible lessons in the State schools.