CHURCH INTERFERENCES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1620, 11 December 1912, Page 8

CHURCH INTERFERENCES.

-■ ■ Sir,—With, regard to . the "strong ex- j ccption" taken, by the Kirk Session of St. John's, Willis Street, to Sunday drilling, which, you published above the signature of Jas. Gibb, 0.D., M. D. Menelaus, I and J. G. W. Aitken, in your issue of Saturday last, I should like to express my views. Surely this'. meddling' with I other men's consciences and. the wild I rushing, into resolutions by church bodies : and similar institutions are to ba heartily deplored.- It must ho that tho Defence forces possess a right to do whatever they like on Sunday, so long as they keep within the law of the land, and abstain , from forcing their views upon other members'of the community. I myself was I present at this camp in $\te capacity of "private," and I may state that the camp was in no sense of the word "compuf-. sory." We. marched into camp on Saturday, and finished up our manoeuvres lato on Monday evening; unfortunately for tho peace of mind .of certain, of our citizens, this camp period covered a Sunday, on which day anybody who wished was allowed to return to Wellington, in order to be present at' divine service or any other religious exercises he wished. As a matter of fact, only one man. availed himself of this opportunity, and tho au- I thorities saw to it that he was driven into town. Merely' by way, of making clear the slipshod methods o? the Church resolutionists in their' eagerness to bo up and smiting,.without a thorough investigation of the.facts, I should like to point ■ out that Company H of tho Fifth was notl parade at Trentham at all;, but that tho BCeno of its delinquencies was Makara, and that Sunday afternoon was not'devoted to target.practice, as alleged, but to a little* instruction in semaphore signalling, and a little, very little, manoeuvring. As for tho "Lord's Day" and the "profanation of the Sabbath," I may bo allowed .to', remark that such terms have very littlo meaning to a largo number of those present at this camp. I may add. that many members of Company H (which is constituted, almost entirely of •Unjyorsily i students) "havo a very.sincoro antipathy to .Presbyterian services, bubwo havo not as yet passed any resolutions in tho matS Harbour View. Wellington. i