PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

Colonist, Volume XLVIII, Issue 11471, 26 October 1905, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

(By Telegraph.— From Our Special Correspondent. )

Wellington, October 24. A good deal haß been said of late on the score of favouritism in regard .to public works expenditure being shown to the West Coast, and this afternoon Sir William Kussell put forward some figures showing how Hawke's Bay, for instance, has bene» iited, as compared with Nelson and Westland. This year, he said, the sum of £29,795 was proposed to be Toted for roads and bridges in the Hawke's Bay Land District, and the votes for railways in the same district brought the total expenditure i up to £49,795. The population r of the district, including Natives, was 64,628. In the Nelson Road District aa expenditure of £26.225 was proposed, and in the Westland district j>23,599, while an expendture of £142,500 was proposed for railways. The population of the West Coast and Nelson, he added, was 50,520. The moral was obvious to anyone vrho read the figures. In the manifesto which the Executive of the Bible in Schools League 13 issuing to the electors appears the following passage : — ' ' It would seem from the correspondence which has appeared in the newspapers that the most violent opposition to Bible reading in schools proceeds from

persons' w&b 1 I6dk * tipttti €bffetlj*nlt^ as an idle obnoxious supeVsti iiofiL With them we_ do not, of course, attempt to argue, but we do venture to appeal to such of our opponents as are believers in the Gospel. Some of them have joined a Dody called the ' State Schools Defence League. » We would ask what the attack ia from which they think necessary to defend the schools. We' hitire no intention of attacking oi; injuring them. We do tioh Conceive 1 that we are doirig so in wishiiig the .Children to receive some. knowledge of a., book" which, to jp.ui.iij on' ijK>.jOjfch£ji! groun.d;> has had ffidre irifluenceon -human history than all the other books that ever were written. It is said, we know, that to impart such knowledge is the duty of the clergyman, and not of the schoolmaster, but those who use this argument in good faith can have paid but little attention to the peculiar conditions of this coun . try. There are -tew,' :4f any,' ministers; of religion in New Zealand who have not several schools In their districts ; many of them have a large number situated many miles apart. Then how is it possible for a clergyman to teach them all if he gave up his whole time to it?"