WILLIS' LATEST ROLE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 301, 17 December 1912, Page 5

WILLIS' LATEST ROLE.

CRITIC OF THE SCHOOLS. THE ONLY LIBERAL LEFT ALIVE. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.) (Received 9.25 a.m.) SYDNEY, this day. Speaker Willis' latest role is that of critic of the State schools. Speaking at a teachers' conference in reference to religious teaching in schools he characterised the present system bs k godless system in the midst of which God was not. His remarks met with strong dissent from the gathering. The ex-Minister of Education and the Director of Education replied, warmly defending the system and repudiating the charge. Touching on politics, Mr Willis told the teachers that there was only one Liberal left. He did not know whether they were going to vote for Labour or the other fellow, but he knew the other fellow was a humbug. His objection to the Labour party was that it did not go far enough or fast enough. Defending his claim to a higher salary, he said that the workman was worthy of his hire. Plenty of men were willing to represent them for nothing, but the man who did it for nothing got rich. One tiling he was bound to say about the Australian public men was that they were honest. He had nine years' experience, and had never seen a member take as much as a twopenny stamp, and he was willing to serve for nothing because the honour of representing one's country was great.