SUNDAY OBSERVANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 204, 29 August 1928, Page 6

SUNDAY OBSERVANCE.

I have great admiration for Archbishop Julius for his courage of conviction regarding Sunday observance. I am far from being "sport mad," but seeing that Sunday to the average man is the only free day as a reward for a monotonous wee! of striving for & living, why should it be so painfully dun and morbid t The old idea of breaking the Sabbath is hope* lessly out of harmony with modern thought. How many really take it seriously? I have every respect for people with religious tendencies, but surely it is fair to ask for a fifty-fifty deal in return. Let the more enlightened live their own lives without protest. Fancy not allowing children's swings to be used in a public park on Sundays, as is done here. I notice that they now have their plays and pictures in London on Sunday, and why not? Let the church lovers have their church by all means, but in fairness let the play lover have his play, the tennis player his tennis, and the footballer his football. I was going to mention the golfer, but on recollection I find that for some strange and unfair reason he has always bees permitted to carry on. I am certain that many working men would spend more within their means and keep in closer touch with their wife and kiddies if Sunday games were permitted instead of making any excuse to get out of the town just to* escape the monotony of our gloomy observance of Sunday. Our churchmen would be far more popular if they favoured sports on Sunday afternoons, particularly if they were active in special events where a percentage of the gates could go to charity. That would be real "painless" taxation and would also do away with constant street collections. It has also been said that Sunday crowds might offend the susceptibilities of religious passers-by. Now just imagine any real "religious" person being offended at thousands of people wending their way to the Auckland Domain to patronise a benefit match for the Blind Institute, the Orphans' Home, the needy unemployed, or some other noble purpose. FAIR TO ALL.