The Evening Star. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1902.

Evening Star, Issue 11696, 30 September 1902, Page 4

The Evening Star. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1902.

It is a matter of opinion whether the City

tram services should be Sunday Tram wholly suspended on SunSerriee. days, and the question is one properly -within the functions of the City Council, as representing thj citizens, to determine. The case is one of those which would seem to- come under the principle of the greatest good to the greatest number, and whilst for obvious Teasons it is desirable that the employees should have the Sunday free, the large section of the working population, whose only day it is for change of air and scene and innocent recreation, have a right to consideration. The conductors, drivers, and Dfchsrs employed in the service should, v« gttnk, have short hours on Sundays and al- ' create Sundays off, and this can surely te .jranged without absolutely stopping the >rvice. As to the matter of extra pay, that is still pending in the Arbitration Court, and not; therefore, open to discussion until the award is given. In regard to the religions aspect of the question, which is put so prominently forward in some quarters, this does not appeal to the great majority of the people, who have no sympathy with the extremists; and it is a fact pertinent to the issue that the suspension of the tram service, whilst releasing from ordinary work the employees in that particular; beea^provediftfi^ajrjnstaiice-to »" ~Y

involve the employment of a larger body of men in running drags, cabs, and ojher conveyances. This was the case on Good Friday last, and very conspicuously so last Sunday, when the City Council stopped the cars in order to leave the employees free to attend the Americai revivalist mission. The drags and cabs charged double the tram faxes, taking advantage of their opportunity and of the rare fineness of the day, and accordingly reaped a rich harvest, while the crowds during the afternoon on the Ocean Beach and at St. Clair were, if anything, larger than usual. The City Council, in the course adopted, set, in our opinion, a very bad precedent, and acted entirely without reasonable justification. Every religious denomination in'Dunedin has an equal claim to have special provision made for allowing employees on the tramways to attend their services. The specialising is distinctly objectionable—the more so as being in favor of a movement distinctly sectarian in object and conducted by foreigners in methods which hardly commend themselves to soberminded people, Whether the City trams are to be run on Sundays or not is, as we indicated above, a question that has yet to be settled by the ratepayers after due deliberation, and in accordance with municipal law, but it is entirely outside the functions of the Council, we contend, to suspend the service on any particular day—Sunday or otherwise—while it is clearly not their business to give official recognition to any form of religion or to aid in running missions. The Roman Catholics, it may be noted, are great on missions, and it can be conceived what an uproar there would be in certain circles if the City Council went out of their way to support those missions, or to afford special facilities to the missioners of that communion in securing larger attendances.