SUNDAY DRILL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 79, 1 April 1908, Page 5

SUNDAY DRILL.

VOLUNTEER CAMPS FRCO.: A : RELIGIOUS ASPECT. 2 _ CSy Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) i WELLINGTON, this day. The Council of Churches appears to. think that the religious sense of the community been scandalised by - the "needless amount of - drill in Volunteer camps on Sunday, and has decided, to deputationise the' Minister for Defence in the hope that its representations will have the effect of abolishing all reasonable ground of protest on this head. The President of the Council, who introduced the subject of Sunday drill, - said -.that under existing conditions martial defence ■was a necessity, and the Volunteer, movement had ample Justification for its existence. However, the "council was not called upon to insist upon what might be called a puritanical observance of the Sabbath in "Volunteer" camps. "We do not," said he, " wish • our young fellows to sit all day in a tent singing psalms, or even listening to sermons, for that would be almost enough to drive thennover to the enemy." What the Council did say was that the work of Volunteers in camp on Sundayshould __ |»ed_ced to a minimum, and reasonable care should be taken not -to offend the consciences of any who regarded the Sabbath as a sacred day of rest. It was because such care was not always taken that the Council deemed it right to make a protest. The Government could not afford to alienate from the Volunteer movement the sympathy of the religious portion of the community, and this was certainly the case when it permitted a needless amount of drill rj Volunteer camps on Sunday. . I o_s of the speakers to the motion, an old Volunteer, declared that he had never drilled on Sunday, even in the war against Titokowaru.