South Australian referendum, 1896

The 1896 election day crowd on Waymouth Street. The election results can be seen on display to the right. The 1896 referendum was held concurrently with the general election.

A referendum was held in South Australia on 25 April 1896, and dealt with matters relating to secular and religious education. The referendum was held concurrently with the 1896 South Australian election, the first in Australia in which women were eligible to vote and stand for office, and was the first referendum to be held in Australia.^[1] The South Australian public affirmed the system of free, secular, state education in place at the time, and rejected scriptural instruction in state schools and a capitation grant for religious schools.

Background

Following the passage of the Free Education Bill in 1891, free, secular education had been provided to South Australian children in state schools. This prompted a number of church groups to campaign for scriptural instruction in state schools. The National Scriptural Education League, led by the Wesleyan pastor Joseph Nicholson, had unsuccessfully attempted to make "scriptural education without dogma" a referendum question at the 1893 election. In 1895 Robert Caldwell, an Anglican Member of the House of Assembly called for a poll to be conducted, asking the opinion of the parents of state school children on the matter. The resolution was amended to extend the poll to all voters, and to include the question of capitation grants for non-state schools.^[2] The question was finally proposed as follows:^[3]

1. Are you in favour of the continuance of the present system of education in State schools?
2. Are you in favour of the introduction of Scriptural instruction in the State Schools during school hours?
3. Are you in favour of the payment of a capitation grant to denominational schools for secular results?

The three options had initially been proposed as one question, which voters could either support or reject. However, Frederick Holder and Premier Charles Kingston moved that each part be considered separately.^[2]

Results

Voters were instructed to place an X next to a proposal to support it, or leave the proposal blank to reject it.^[1] All subsequent referendums have been held in a Yes/No format. Of the 137,781 colonists on the electoral roll, 91,348 voted, a turnout of 66.3%.^[1] The total informal vote was 12,830 (14%),.^[1]

Reaction

The Anglican bishop of Adelaide John Harmer, who had been an advocate of both scriptural instruction in schools and the capitation grant, distributed a pastoral letter to his diocese in the wake of the referendum, conceding that the result had decisively shown that these reforms would be unlikely to gain support. The Southern Cross, Adelaide's Catholic newspaper, pointed out that the capitation grant alone, and not scriptural instruction, had been requested by the Catholic Church, and that it was the size of the margin, rather than the result, that was of interest. Christian Weekly, a local Wesleyan paper, also called the decision decisive, but maintained hope for future changes.^[4]

References

Elections and referendums in South Australia
General elections	1851 1855 1857 1860 1862 1865 1868 1870 1871 1875 1878 1881 1884 1887 1890 1893 1896 1899 1902 1905 1906 1910 1912 1915 1918 1921 1924 1927 1930 1933 1938 1941 1944 1947 1950 1953 1956 1959 1962 1965 1968 1970 1973 1975 1977 1979 1982 1985 1989 1993 1997 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 by-elections
Referendums	1896 1898 1899 1911 1915 1965 1970 1982 1991