AT FIRST OPPORTUNITY

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 186, 27 October 1927, Page 15

AT FIRST OPPORTUNITY

3!BLE-IN-SCKOOLS BILL REPORT VIRTUALLY IGNORED (THE SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter:) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. The Prime Minister apparently does not attach much importance to the effect which the report of the Education Committee of the House of Representatives upon the Religious Exercises in Schools Bill will have upon the Bill itself. When asked to bring the report back to the House so that the discussion could be completed, Mr. Coates said this would make no difference to the position of the measure on the order paper. It would be brought on at the first suitable opportunity. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. H. E. Holland, protested that surely the report of the committee should be considered before the Bill was allowed to proceed. The Education Committee had bee.n considering the merits of the Bill. Mr. P. Fraser, -who raised the question in the House, expressed a desire to see that the Bill was not unduly delayed. This plausible request from an avowed opponent of the measure provoked a laugh from the Prime Minister, who said there were two other important Bills which the Government wished to discuss that day, and as there had not appeared to be a general demand for the reappearance of the report, he did not see why the time of the House should be occupied iri this way. Mr- W. Parry: They do not care if they never see it. Mr. H. E. Holland:* Does the member in charge not wish it to proceed? Mr. Coates let it go at that.