CYCLING ON SUNDAYS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9668, 5 March 1897, Page 3

CYCLING ON SUNDAYS.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE PRESS-

Sir, —Someone, writing as a member of the Cyclists' Touring Club, protests in the Press against the Club cycling on Sundays. I may say that I have made enquiries, and find that the party that went to Rangiora on Sunday was a private one, and did not constitute ihe Club.

It is difficult to write on the subject of ! Sunday riding without arousing the odium thtologieum, so dear to some correspondents. : I cannot help thinking, however, that it is a piece of sublime folly for a toi-disant member of the Club to dictate to other members when they shall and shall not indulge in the pastime of cycling. One can understand reasonable objections being made to ridinc in trams, or to other methods of spending Sunday which involve labour to other people on that day. But cycling is sorely different. Consider what the possession of a bicycle means to many a man who has little leisure time in the week for oating. It is at once a means of pleasant exercise and an opportunity of enjoying country air and scenery. Walking soon palls npon most people; and besides, one's walks are er*e_tly restricted. Whereas, one who has a'bicyc_ can extend his knowledge of surrounding country, can visit friends at a distence, get plenty of wholesome exercise without madh attendant fatigue, and all this without inconven-encing anyone. As to the harm (moral or otherwise) done to such an individual, I can only say that, if he wishes to attend a place of worship there are plenty of churches and chapels in country d_stz_cts to which he can go. Bnt ] if the writer's ideal of spending Sunday, j as a day of rest, is to keep in town, conjure j ay * MiuM-t*.* el ecmWaarM. lev the,

whole day and devote the time to singing hymns, reading religious novels and nothing else, by all means let him do so. But do not attempt to enforce such views upon other people. ' Several centuries ago it was said that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. There were religious bigots in those days to whom such an assertion sounded like heresy and incentive to immorality. Apparently the race of bigots is not yet extinct. — Yours, -Sec, Also a Member.