ESTABLISHED 1875. The Manawatu Daily Times. The Oldest Manawatu Journal. Published Every Morning. FRIDAY, JUNE 2, 1905. SUNDAY CLOSING.

Manawatu Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 405, 2 June 1905, Page 2

ESTABLISHED 1875. The Manawatu Daily Times. The Oldest Manawatu Journal. Published Every Morning. FRIDAY, JUNE 2, 1905. SUNDAY CLOSING.

The rejection by the House of Commons of tha Bill designed to prohibit the sale of alcoholic liquors on Sundays indicates how far behind New Zealand the Old Country is in the matter of its licensing lawe. To us it seems that thero ia no valid argument to be advanced in favour of Sunday trading. For long enough we left a loophole in the bona fide traveller . clause ; but even that has been repealed, and to all intents and purposes a hotel bar must observe Sunday as strictly as does a grocer's shop. -Scotland adppted Sunday closing just fifty years ago, and has never had reason to regret the step. In England, however, the law has remained in its old bad state. Fif:y years ago Scotland was practically tho only British country in which Ipublichouses were closed on Sundays. To-day England is the only important country in tho Empire in which the houses are permitted to remain open. There is an Association at Home which agitates for reform in this respect, and at its annual meeting last month the committee reported that there was " a decided increase in activity on behalf of Sunday closing and a marked growth of interest in the question." But it is tedious work agitating against vested interests. Mr R. \V. Perka, M.P., who is chairman of the Association, commented on the fact that the opposition to the reform did not come from jthe mas 3of the people. He said that some of the most active advocates of the movement were working men, who made no very clear profession of religious faitb, and apart from the question of the sanctity of I the Sabbath, the subject was an important economical social, and industrial factor in the country. Whenever there had been an^ppetl to a distinctly working dags population on this question the answer had always been emphatically in its favour. The leaders of this movement, therefore, urge that they were the friends of the people. Having regard to all the circumstances, it can hardly be doubted that the reform is most desirable and necessary, and probably when the Liberals come into power it will be carried.