A QUEENSLAND REFERENDUM.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 9, 11 July 1910, Page 8

A QUEENSLAND REFERENDUM.

TO THE EDITOH. Sir,— ln The Post of Wednesday, sth inst. , Bishop Wallis's Anglican Synod address is given relating to religious instructiom in schcole, in wdiich prominence is given to the result of the Queensland Bible-in-Schools Reierendiimy which, the Bishop says was carried 1 by a majority, I think, of 52 per oen-t. of the voters. He doubts whether an equal result would be found in Now Zealand, adding : "And! yefc plebiscites taken in several typical town and country districts have shown considerable majorities in, favour of teaching of the Bible by State teachers in. State Schools." Shortly after Canon C. C. Harper's refcnrn from England, lie presided at a Bible-in-School agitation, meeting in Palmerston North, and it was then said by himself and by the Rev. Mr. Jolly, Presbyterian, that the plebiscite taken there ga-ve an indication that nine-tenths oi the people were in. favour of Bible teaching in schools, and that this was the average for the Dominion. But at that Palmerston meeting there was less than fifty persons present, and the Dunedin speciad meeting held about this time, which had also been well advertised from pulpit and pr-ess, with the Anglican Bishop to preside, supported by the-Rev. Mr. Fitchett, had' an attendance of less than, sixty persons, as reported by the Otago Daily Times. This was a plain proof that clerical statements were very unreliable. Regarding Bishop Wallis's statement that the Queensland majority for BibleReading or Religious Instruction in its schools by the referendum was 52 per cent of the voters, we have to go back to the first results, published- in The Post of 22nd April. A press telegrams from Brisbane that day gave the fig-ares as "Yes" 45,282, and "No" 29,185— a majority of 16,097, equal to 55.12 per cent. But The Post of 31st May contained a. telegram from' Brisbane sent that day, giving the figures for the proposal, 77,000; against, 56,403. Here the majority would be but 36.51 per cent. But turning to the Brisbane Courier of Ist June, I learn, that the final numbers were : — Yes .... 74 s iai *&> 56,440 j Informal 7,451 j Total 138,072 Aa the total number of enrolled voters in Queensland was 279,031, it will be seen, that after all their cleric excitement, less than half tho voters troubled about, voting on this question, whole on the two other referendum' questions, as shovvji in the Gourierof 21st April, Einancial Agreement had : Yes 80,oiO, and No 66,885, and State Debta: Yes, 92674; No, 49,682, the total votes recorded being 147,195, in one case and 142,356 in the other. The Bible-in-School increase of the final figures from those first given, which Bishop Wallis seems to have judged by, was: Ye&, 63.82 per cent.; No, 93.39 per cent. The votes given for Bible lessons numbered 74,181, out of 279,031 voters, or 26.58 per cent. ; so that only about one-fourth of the voters voted Yes. A correspondent in the Brisbane Courier of 29th April, drew attention to the fact that the Anglican Bishop of Northern Queensland had ordered all the churches in his diocese to hold, on the folio-wing Sunday, thanksgiving services in acknowledgment of the overwhelming majority of the Bible-in-School movement, while in his diocese there was an overwhelming majority against the movement. In Townsyille, we are told, there was a decent majority of about 500 for it ; Charters Towers showing 700 ; Cairns, 300; Flinders, 500; Woodhalkala, 1200; and Kennedy, 300 majority against it. The correspondent adds: — "Surely his Lordship must bo the champion jokist of the north?" I trust that in future our clerics will, in their statement, give us up-to-date reliable information only, for the Bible-in-Schools majority, was after all, but 17,741, or 31.43 per cent, of those who so voted 1 over those who voted against it, instead of Bishop Wallis's 52 per cent. — I am, etc., B. WIGHTMAN. Bth July, 1910.