SERMON OR SURF?

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 281, 27 November 1922, Page 3

SERMON OR SURF?

CHANGED SUNDAY HABITS. MORNING OX THE W s _T__RFROXT. THE PICNIC CROUD. What lias become of the "peaceful calm of the English Sabbath mom, the sound of the belle stealing over the j fields as the villagers wended their way to the little church nestling among -be tall elms'" How many times has the scene been lovingly described by English novelist, and who can say what mii fluence this rather .harming tradition has had on British people no matter to what corner of the globe they may have been scattered. Go down to the Auckland waterfront any summer Sunday morn and you would wonder whether we were really descended from tlie people brought up on the b.il.-stealing-over-Hhe-fields tradition. .

(all it continental, or purely pagan. Sunday in Auckland. A.U.. 1022. is something "that H> or '_() year, ago would have called forth columns ami columns of protest in the correspondence columns of the newspapers, both on religious nnd humanitarian grounds. To speak or advertise openly of an excursion or a picnic on Sunday would have been as little thought of as standing in Queen Street during the war and shouting "Hoch dcr Kaiser!" Only the other day a religious institution signed its name in full to an advertisement of a Sunday picnic to one of the islands in the Gulf, and it wasn't a "by invitation onlv - ' affair at that.

A few years ago the only people that deliberately omitted to keep the Sabbath were y.rhting men. They went away. howe-. c;- on the Saturday, and didn't turn Sunday morning into something like regatta day on the waterfront, and they did show some sense of conscience when they returned on the Sunday afternoon, choosing the least freqented way home and if they had caught any fish these were discreetly disguised in a more or less seemly bag.

; Take your stand any fine Sunday morning at the junction of Queen Street 1 and Quay Street and you will have some idea why the churches are empty. Every I tram that comes along empties crowds of men, women, and children in "glad rags'' or in plain rags, obviously sug--1 gestive of fishing or some equally unSabbatical occupation. There are young men in white with the shirt collar worn outside the coat collar in the degage

.•manner affected ill some circles: young j women with baskets containing lunch

ami bathing -tog.," the lot covered over i with a piece of brown paper; fathers and j mothers hurrying their brood over the j tramlines all and sundry carrying basI kets of food (great eaters these Sunday J picnickers), fishing rods or other im- ' pediment., necessary to kill things and | put the climax on a perfect day. If I yon happen to come across some of the j more popular picnic grounds you will

. sec all the fun of the fair going on, I rounders, and other sedative games in I full swing, and the omissions of the cat- , pring department can be rectified by the ' adjacent stall where sweet edibles, gaily coloured waters, and other usual accompaniments of a happy day in the country can be obtained.

Without commenting in any way on tho wisdom or otherwise of the old English tradition or of the modern way of spending the Sabbath it is rather inter- ; esting for anyone that studies human l nature and the customs of the people to ! note this change that has come about in the last decade or so. The new method may he typified in an incident that happened near a certain popular watering place a Sunday or two ago. : Vehicles emptied their hundreds of sum-mery-looking folk on pleasure bent, all j roads led to beach and {.rove, and coming in the opposite direction were three sol- | itary, separate, and individual people in ] correct Sunday garb wending their wav | towards a little chapel whose hell , sounded but faintly through the hub- | bub of the holidaymakers. Who was | travelling in the right direction?