IRISH UNIVERSITIES BILL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 145, 18 June 1908, Page 5

IRISH UNIVERSITIES BILL.

ATTITUDE OF THE CHURCH. POPE'S FORMAL AGREEMENT WANTED. (Received 8.48 a.m.) LONDON, June 17. Referring to the Bishop of Limerick's statement that the Irish Bishops met Mr- Birrell's Irish Universities Bill in a liberal spirit, and submitted to principles utterly foreign to the Catholic Church, "The Times" states that unless the Pope sanctioned submission he might at any moment repudiate a bargain made behind his back. "The Times" asks Mr. Birrell to state if Rome has clearly and formally sanctioned his scheme. ! When the bill was introduced, Mr. Balfour, in supporting it, said that for his part he did hot believe that a better plan than that of tie Chief Secretary could be devised. The" one criticism' he' had to pass was as* to the exclusion in future years of : the Crown from the work of selecting professors. The scheme as a whole presented itself to him as an absolutely sincere effort to solve a great difficulty. It would provide- for Ireland academic institutions in the best sense of the words—institutions which would have the power to build up traditions of sound learning, unprejudiced and unpolluted by religious bigotry: Mr. Dillon, who is a graduate of the Catholic University, Dublin, congratulated the Chief Secretary, thanked the Leader of the Opposition for his graceful acceptance of the measure, and declared that a university founded on the principles announced that day would be acceptable to the Roman Catholics, and that it would not be more clerical in character than any other institution for higher education in Ireland or in Great Britain.