A PROTESTANT PROTEST.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18898, 26 June 1923, Page 4

A PROTESTANT PROTEST.

QUEENSLAND INCIDENT. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, Juno 13. For the first lime in Australian history a vice-regal levee was purposely deprived of the presence of leading representatives of the Protestant Churches during the past week. The incident occurred in Queensland, and the action was taken by the Anglican and other Protestant bodies as a protest against the proposal of his Excellency the Governor to give first precedence to the If on Kin Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane. Prior to the levee tho proposal was discussed with animation at a meeting of the Brisbane Church Federation, and the contention there raised, and embodied in a resolution, was that (he proposal lo give precedence to the Roman Catholic Archbishop on the ground of (he length of tenure of office (in which respect tho Roman Catholic prelate has the advantage of his Anglican brother) was not justified, inasmuch as the preponderating numerical strength of the Church of England over all other denominations in Queensland should be the deciding factor. Speakers pointed l out that 1 he,office, and not its temporary occupant, should determine matters of precedent, and that if tenure of office alone were to be the accepted basis the minor denominations must necessarily bo entitled to as much consideration as the larger churches. No one, it. was emphasised, could take any exception to a church enjoying the prestige and numerical strength of the Church of England being given precedence of all official occasions, but very strong and bitter objections would arise if another basis for determining precedence wore adopted and some denominations were invidiously excluded from it. The resolution on the subject pointed out that the order of precedence established in connection with the military forces of the commonwealth, so far as the religious denominations were concerned, was bused on the census returns, and was as follows:—1, Anglican; 2, Roman Catholic; 3, Presbyterian; 4, Methodist; 5, other Protestant denominations in order of numerical strength. The resolution laid down that while clearly recognising (hat Australia had no established religion, it was fitting that official precedence should reflect tho fact that they belonged to an Empire in which Protestant principles were manifestly predominant, and were unswervingly supported by his Majesty the King and safeguarded by the British Constitution.

Although tho resolution was conveyed to the Governor, and strong representations were made in support of it. Government House merely replied that tho same basis was being ja.dopt.ed as at the last levee, which took place before the war in the time of Sir Wi'b’am MacGregor. Thus unsuccessful in tho protest of their adherents, the heads of the churches, including the Anglican Archbishop, felt it incumbent upon them to absent themselves from the levee. Government House the same day issued the bare announcement that letters had been received from these gentlemen setting forth the reasons for their non-attendance.