AN EARNEST LEGISLATOR

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 152, 29 June 1914, Page 2

AN EARNEST LEGISLATOR

ON THE BIBLE-IN-SCHOOLS QUESTION. ' Speaking at the meeting, in the new Opera House last evening, of protest against the introduction of the Biblereading in the State schools, the Hon. W. Earnshaw, M.L.C., emphasised the stntement that the people who would have to vote on the proposed referendum did not even know what the text-book to be used in the school would contain. Who was going to compile that book ? Voices : "Massey" ! "Herdman" ! "Fisher" ! (Laughter.) Thp Hon. W. Earnshaw : Well, Massey would do better than Canon Garland — (lauKhter)r- that's one for Massey. (Laughter.)' I would sooner trust that three than I would trust three parsons to compile that book. If you put an Anglican, a, Pioman Catholic, and a Wesleyan parson into a room to determine What were to be the chapters taken to compile that book, do you think they would agree? They would first ask, "Which Bible?" Would the Wesleyan or the Anglican agree that anything from the Apocrypha or # the Talmud should be included ? Certainly not. And which version would they take? The Education Department wae to provide a book, a,nd did not know which would be the Bible version chosen. Was not this the entrance of the State into a religious issue? This question had got to be faced by the public and in the Lower House, The Upper House had been called a museum — (laughter) — but sometiihes it would be found its' members ■ ware like the weasel — difficult to catch asleep. And, as for himself, he had a pair of blankets that he had used for upcountry trips which he would take on to the floor of the Upper House, to block the passage of the Bill, and if there were half a dozeu members with him they could do it. (Applause.)