THE "REFERENDUM" AND THE CRISIS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2327, 8 December 1914, Page 3

THE "REFERENDUM" AND THE CRISIS

■WHAT EVERY ELECTOR SHOULD KNOW. , MANIFESTO BY THE CATHOLIC BISHOPS. The Empire is now passing through tne gravest crisis in all its long'history. This is tho time, above all times, tor unity o f heart and effort among all creeds and classes. By nothing is that heart union so' deeply wounded as by religious Strife. For a time we had hoped that our country would now be spared this bitter wound. That- was when, at the outbreak of this great war, an ecclesiastical League or combination, in the deolared interests of unity of hearts, requested the withdrawal of their "lleferendum" Bill, which has given rise to such deep and widespread religious discord. That brief hope was soon shattered. And now, for the .first »me (n the history of New Zealand, an effort is being made to conduct a general election on religious issues involving serious violations of religious liberty aud rights of conscience, and promoting intense and bitter divisions among the people. And this in the Empire's hour of supreme trial 1 All this we deeply deplore. We deplore it as lovers of our country. We deplore it as the spiritual leaders of a religious body in tnia Dominion, in whose most sacred official liturgy prayers are offered, day by day, for harmony and for Heaven's protection for our Empire. 1-' A demand is made, not for "the Bible" in the State-School Curriculum, out for State-selected, State-taught scraps: and. fragments, from a sectarian version of the Bible. This was described by tw6 League leaders as a mutilated" And "emasculated caricature" of the Bible. In practical effect, the demand is for a sectarian, Statetaught State-Religion—to suit only one 'League or section of the people., at the cost of all sections of the people. This is tne'anti-deraocratio principle of taxation without benefit.

2. An overwhelming majority (perhaps some ninety per cent.) of the certificated teachers of this Dominion consoientiouelyobject to teach the proposed sectarian Government Biblical frag-' nients. The League wants to force these teachers by law, either to violate their consciences >or to be driven out of the Public service. This'involves a new religious test and a new and terrible civil penalty for a new religious offence, in the publl6 Service. And this in time of war I

3.. The League 'wants a law to force ALL ohlldren of objeotors"to attend the Government's Biblical fragment lessons —unless their parents go to the trouble of making WRITTEN protests against this form of State proselytism. And tliia is in the midst of war!' 4. The League wants majority rule of conscience, it wants to force.its Government Biblical fragments upon tho pockets and the- consciences of objecting taxpayers and teachers.. In other words, the League wants to import Into tne domain of religion and of private personal conscience, the Cerman militarist principle that might is right. And this whilo the Empire is in the throes o.t war!; . . ;

:5. The League stands for its miscalled , .Referendum" Bill. That Bill contained six .separate, ambiguously worded, and highly controversial issues. Hardly two League leaders understand them all in the same sense. Not two electors in a hundred could understand them-all in tho same sense, yet the League wants bewildered electors to decide all these six contused and tangled, issues with" a single .".W or a single "No"! The League wants New Zea i and to ad { blindly an unjust, bitterly controversial and partly unintelligible scheme-in the middle of the Empire's greatest war. . \\ ith deep sorrow we jiow see forced upon us, and upon our fellow-country-men of all other faiths, the neceesity of defending some of the elementary c * ltl ? !l k" ght ' s of region and conscience And this, in the midst of a General flection, and in the most terrible crisis through which the Empire has ever passed. ..But we should fail in our duty to our faith, to our fellow-citizens of every creed, and to the Empire, if either in war or peace,.our attitude oii ■these lamentable proposals were other than one of uncompromising resistence. «,, U T ? 1 u J^ a , rt '' llav ® ever heartily supported Biblical religious teaching in our public schools. Over and over again, by ourselves of our representatives, we have expressed our willingness to.meet other interested parties in conterence hereon. Over and over again wo have publicly expressed our willingness to co-operate in any (even a partial) solution of the-religious difficulty m- education—with only one proviso' the recognition of equal rights of conof all before the law. Given good-will, some arrangement could be thus speedily arrived" at. Unhappily, our suggestions and representations hereorr havo been steadily ignored. . lhe great eumsof money expended in fostering sectarian strife at the polls in this great hour of trial might be more becomingly devoted "to war relief o> to the .religious instruction of youth in the public schools. Tho red mist of the world's greatest war seems hardly a suitable time for groups-of clergy to try to abdicate, in part, one of the most saored duties of the Christian ministry, and to force It upon conscientiously objecting State officials. For nearly forty fjeare the vast majority of the League clergy have, in practice,' accepted a purely secular scheme of public instruction. In view-of this fact the public can easily estimate, at its proper value, the threat to damage or "wreck , ! what they call "the national system" by establishing rival denominational schools, uniess the electors'of this Dominion do the League's bidding at the polls. May God preserve this favoured land f.rom the spirit of religious discord and strife which, has so long embittered, social and political life 5. the Australian State where the League' 6 scheme has been longest in operation 1 We now confidently leave the menaced cause of national harmony, of religious peace, of religious liberty, \ and of rights of conscience, to every lover of , justice, to every, lover of his country, to every elector (irrespective of patty) who holds (as the League once held) that the Dominion should stand, .united in heart, by the Empire in its supreme hour of need. l

Wβ remain always, Affectionately yours in Christ, +.THOS. O'SHEA, S.M., Archbishop of Gortyna and Coadjutor of Wellington ■i +J. J. GRIMES, S.M., Bishop,of Christohurch. + MICHAEL/VERDON, Bishop of Dunedin. + HENRY WM. CLEARY, Bishop of Auckland. (Published by'.Arrangenient.),