§ Mr. HENRY WALKERasked the Undersecretary of State for the Colonies with reference to the referendum recently taken in the State of Queensland on the question of religious instruction in the State Schools, what was the question asked of the electorate; whether women as well as men were qualified to vote; whether the referendum poll was taken concurrently with a general election; and what were the figures upon the question as thus submitted to the electorate?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for the COLONIES (Colonel Seely)The questions put to the electors in the referendum recently taken in the State of Queensland on the subject of religious instruction in State Schools were as follows:—"Are you in favour of introducing the following system into State Schools, namely: The State schoolmaster in school hours teaches selected Bible lessons from a reading book provided for the purpose, but is not allowed to give sectarian teaching; Any minister of religion is entitled, in school hours, to give the children of his own denomination an hour's religious instruction on such day or days as the school committee can arrange for; Any parent is entitled to withdraw his child from all religious teaching if he 1304 chooses to do so? "Both women and men were qualified to vote, and the referendum poll was taken concurrently with the election of members for the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia. I gather from the newspapers that the figures were in favour of religious instruction—69,321 against 51,955.