Australia

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 26, 1907

UNDER date of August 4, Elder W. A. Hennig writes as follows:—

“Dr. W. F. Crafts has been here, and has been very busy getting his new machine, the International Reform Bureau, set up. He has it about ready now. All the firemen and engineers are appointed, and the machine will start off on the Sabbath reform track. He has enlisted the support of a good many men of influence, and I think he feels that his trip here has not been in vain.

“The Bible in School League was much disappointed and angered because the Victorian government did not give them what they wanted. The question is now before the parliament of the Queensland government. I think that the church people will not get what so many of them want this year. A good many of the members are opposed to the measure. The parliament is to decide whether or not there will be a referendum on the question. The speaker of the House said that he did not want the matter to come up at all. If it did, he would oppose it, because a religious question was not a proper question for a referendum; that no majority had any right to decide any religious question for a minority, no matter how small that minority may be. Some of the other leading members hold the same views. His speech was a good one.

“There are a great many agitators here for the union of the churches, but in this direction there has not been as much headway made in this country as in the States. Some of the reformers are getting rabid.”