TEN TIMES ONE MAKE ONE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 148, 24 June 1914, Page 2

TEN TIMES ONE MAKE ONE

• TO THg BDITOR. t,.?" 1 '?""^ 16 above is true when, as the ( Bible-in'Schools League executive does, you take the same one ten times. Mr. Massey will presently have a shower of resolutions as thick as autumn leaves, telling him of the ardent desire of numerous bodies to have their own particular system of religious instruction run at the expense of the State. 1. The Premier will have a resolution in the name of four denominations, claiming to represent 75 per cent, ot the people. x 2. Then each of these four denominations will send a resolution' separately from its head court. 3. _ Then district sections of each * denomination, synods, presbyteries, circuits, etc., will send the same resolution. _ 4. Then the officers of each congregation will pass the same resolution. 5. Next the Ministers' Association will, for the fifth time, in a different guise, givo its members a vote on tho resolution. 6. Then various other sections of the same Churches, already multiplied a few times, will vote again as C.E.M.S., Bible Class (men's and women's), Sunday School teachers' associations, and at any conference whtre a few who have already been included half a dozen times in the resolution will again be multiplied, t But this does not exhaust the •versatility/ of the Bible in;. Schools organisers. 7. They start all over again and present to the Premier the four denominations over again in another form, i.e., in the shape of a. bundle of cards said to number either 14,000 or 140,000. It docß nob matter which, if you can mul» tiply. 8. Then the same 140,000 are presented in nine or ten provinces with the same old resolution as they voted in when marshalled together. " We, the 30,000 members of the Bible-in-Schools League in the Auckland Province," etc. 9. They are getting into their stride now, and next they appear round another corner in the subdivided form of voters ,in >an electorate. The same people, already twice represented in the same resolution, come on a third time as ' "We, the 3000 members of the Bible-in-Schools League in the \Egmont electorate," etc. 10. "One maji, one Vote?" Not a bit oS it. The 140,000, and the 140,000 as nine provinces, and the 140,000 'as seventy or eighty electorates, come on again as the same 140,000 in branches ot the Bible-in-State-Schools League ot Christchurch or Masterton, and present themselves for the tenth time in the same old resolution. 11. Finished? Not a bit of it. Just as in a kinematograph picture " procession " the same forty performers" pass and re-pass the camera and produce an endless multitude, the 140,000 come at us again, multiplied once more by two, for tho Women s Committee carries the same resolution, and the same duplication is effected once more. 12. Here wd are again ! A " demonstration " of some of the same" cyclic order vote again for the resolution, which many of them now say in their sleep, like "Punch, brothers, punch,' punch with care." 13. Then at every little garden party, tea party', suburban meeting, the breathless army is given another vote, and tho resolutions solemnly sent to headquarters. Wo expect soon to hear of the resolution being carried by the married and single separately; by the blondes and brunettes ; the smokers and nonsmokers ; by those over forty and those under _ forty ; by those who really belieyo in the right of .entry for sectarian instruction, and by those who swallow this "insidious thing" along with their principles; by those who know what the league is after and by those who don't ; by those who are bluffing ' and those who are bluffed ; in fact, we expect in a few weeks to find demented leaguers each running -nit looking for the otheP ten or eleven of himself, and proving seven or eight alibis when he 1 is wanted. One man, one vote? No. Ten times the same man makes ten, according to league arithmetic ; just as the new regulation in New South Wales makes three times the same minister's visit be three visits. This unsophisticated, 'cute plan of making a resolution become a revolution, a kaleidoscope, is frantically applauded as "Our Chief Strategist's " masterpiece. Do they really think politicians know so little? In Queensland^ after presenting a compilation of, petitions which were gathered during fifteen years, and contained names of people who were dead or out of the State, a referendum was claimed. There, as here, the league claimed to represent denomination* comprising about 76 per cent of tho ' people. Yet, when they beat tip every vote tl 1 could muster at the poll, they could only piicnv a Following m '^d> jki i <„,.. oC the electors on the roll. Out of 279,031 voters on tho roll they could only muster 74,181, after an energetic campaign, where they placarded the booths inside and out, and did what they pleased. Of course, thn same elector \^ho is represented twelve or thirteen times over in the league's resolutions cannot vote' thirteen times. That is where the Bible-in-Schools League's multiplication table loses its legs and topples over.— l am, JOHN CAUGTILEY. Chnetchujcb; 22ud Juu?, 1214.