That Referendum

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 52, 26 December 1907, Page 10

That Referendum

For the Bible-in-schools leaders in Victoria, the wine of life has again turned into vinegar, and their hoperecently, so high — • Like snow upon the desert's dusty face, N Lighting a little hour or two, is gone.' After a vast deal of desperate political engineering, they managed to co.mmit the State Premier to a plebis.cite (miscalled a 'referendum') to- decide a question of conscience— namely, • the introduction, or non-introduc-tion, of the Protestant version of the Bible, on Protestant lines, as part of the curriculum of the public schools of Victoria. They did not quite succeed in inducing the complaisant Mr. Bent to adopt, word for word, the form of reference which they favored. But, from their point of view, that mattered little, as he framed a r<ues- . tion for the electors which was almost as misleading— to" wit :— „. Are you in favor of the Education Act being so . -amended' as to allow of unsectarian Scripture lessons jieing Riven in -State Schools during; the school hours toL those children whose parents do not object, and by State school teachers who have no conscientious objections ?'

In our last issue we dealt sufficiently with the undue assumptions, the sectarian phraseolorv. and" the tricky and' misleading character of this form , of reference. The House very properly refused, though by a narrow majority,- to be a party to this mode oE throwing dust in - the eyes of the free and independent elector. Mr. Bent's scheme was defeated. The House proposed, instead; -the clear, plain question that lies at the root of the whole discussion :- ' Are you in favor of the Education Act re-" maining, as at present, free, secular, and compulsory ?' We are told that the Government is now considering whether, in the circumstances, they will proceed any further with the. so-called « referendum.' This way of , putting, the issue gets right to the root of the matter. * But it is a bitter disappointment to the campaigners, whose only hope was to snatch" a if they could, by a ruse de guerre— by a_ confused, misleading, and trickily worded issue. In private life, the leaders of "the movement would, we feel, sure, "no more dream of practising such artifices than they would think of picking a pocket or robbing a hen-roost. But in politics the end is too often made to "justify the means. And in sundry of their campaigning methods the reverend agitators in Victoria adopted both on and off the platform— especi- " ally in the matter of arousing and organising sectarian " , passion— resorts from which all but the least reputable of ' lay politicians habitually shrink. They have once more failed-such. failures give a zest to life. However, disappointments of this kind may at least turn the .energy of the campaigners into its natural channel". They may, perhaps, abandon the arena of politics— to which their methods have added a new squalor— cease from the toil . 'Of dropping buckets into empty, wells - And growing old in drawing nothing up,' • and bestir themselves to discharge that elementary duty of the Christian ministry-the religious instruction of the children of their various faiths-which they have been * so indecently eager to. force upon the shoulders of- lay State officials* - "