THE BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 99, 24 October 1904, Page 4

THE BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

We hope that the House of Representatives will not be overawed by the homily which has been addressed to it by the Rev. Dr. Gibb on the subject of its duty with regard to the Referendum Bill. The logic of the decision which the House has already recorded with regard to tho third clause is that the Bill is not needed at all. If the referendum is not to be applied even to a Bill which haa been twice, and in consecutive sessions, passed by one Chamber of the Legislature and rejected by the other, it is impossible to argue that it admits of reasonable application to any academical proposition about which the Legislature is afraid to express an opinion itself, and therefore desires a lead from the electors. In otner words, if the referendum proper is not to be tolerated, the plebiscite is still more intolerable, and it is for the plebiscite that Dr. Gibb and his colleagues in the Bible-in-Schools Conference are agitating. Our own opinion is that if the referendum is ever recognised, it must be with such i safeguards as will prevent a majority from riding rough-shod over the rights of conscience of a minority, and that a plebiscite which seeks to enlighlen a timid Legislature as to whether a minority «in such a case' is small enough to be safely trampled on, is doubly mad missible. The House therefore, after rejecting the referendum, should proceed on the a fortiori principle to reject the plebiscite, notwithstanding the fulmination launched by the Chairman of the Bible-in-Schools Executive in the shape of his letter to the Premier. We may remind that Executive that there is a constitutional referendum already appointed for this and all other questions, and that in ordinary course it will como round again towards the end of next year. When the occasion arrives, wo hope that the constituencies will speak out clearly on tho subject, and that candidates who shirk the responsibility of giving a plain answer "Yes" or "rfo" to the question will be hold incapable of legislating either with regard to this matter or anything elset