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New Zealand Tablet, 13 October 1910, Page 1655

On a recent Sunday night the Archbishop of Melbourne, preaching in St. Patrick’s Cathedral on the question of the Bible in State schools and the proposed referendum, said he viewed the referendum as a leap in the dark. There is no hint given the people of the fundamental change that would be effected in the State school system if the question were answered in the affirmative by a majority of votes. In reality such a majority vote would destroy the secular aspect of the system. A referendum may be expedient when matters of a political nature have to be decided ; but as applied to religious questions it is a violation of the religious liberty which the law guarantees to every member of the community. It presumes that a majority has a right to force its religious convictions on a minority. The Archbishop pointed out that no information was given in the proposed referendum questions as to the character of the unscctarian lessons in Scripture which, were to be given, nor as to the manner in which the lessons were to be taught. If these were taught as it was intended on a former occasion they should have been taught, it was simply endowing the Protestant religion in the public schools. His Grace also referred to the manner in which the Protestant majority in Holland had last year settled the educational difficulty there, and the settlement had proved satisfactory. Where there were twenty Catholic families in any given district, then those families had a right to demand a separate school, and to this the Government appointed Catholic teachers, and gave, as to all other schools, o*nefourth of the cost of their maintenance.