The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY APRIL 6, 1927. THOSE SUNDAY EXCURSION TRAINS!

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10376, 6 April 1927, Page 4

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY APRIL 6, 1927. THOSE SUNDAY EXCURSION TRAINS!

A protest against the running of excursion trains on Sunday was only to tie expected sooner or later on behalf of that large if, perhaps, diminishing section which holds to the conviction that that particular day should he kept strictly as a Day of Rest. With what many people may regard as commendable enterpriseand that it is commendable is now feeing hotly challenged—the Government has certainly extended very considerably its activities in the direction to which reference is being made. In the past, trains have, of course, been run on Sundays from the main centres over short distances and, although the system was, doubtless, adopted as a special measure to meet the convenience of those who required to journey on that day, it is unquestionable that it has encouraged a great deal of patronage of a' casual nature. Now the Department lias gone a step further and, by using the magnet of excursion fares, it is openly soliciting patronage in connection with its extended Sunday servies. The Government, in this regard, has, seemingly, thrown sentiment to the winds. It will not admit that its object is ,_to swell its revenue returns, but it is difficult to believe that its intentions are otherwise. Wliat will, no doubt, be said on behalf of the new principle is that, if it be right for steamship companies, motor ’bus companies, tramway concerns, etc., to run services on Sundays it cannot be wrong for the Stato to conduct train services on that day. In the circumstances, it is problematical whether any protest, no matter bow violent it may be. will prove of any avail. The Railways Department, it m we'lknenn, is now at war with the neve’ form of transport represented by rector ’buses, and, apparently, it dees not intend to be behindhand in the matter of soliciting patronage, be the day Sunday or any other day. In strict fact, nothing might have-been heard of its latest extended activities if it had Contented i.tself with putting on additional train services on Sundays throughout the Dominion as a regular practice without making a special bid for traffic by means of the publication of the allurement that fares are on the basis of excursion rates. No attempt is, therefore, being made to-day to pretend that tlie Sunday trains are being run merely to provide essential services. Such being the case, it is not surprising that there is an outcry against the Department’s encouragement of what will he widely regarded as Sabbath non-observance. It is certainly one tiling for the State to run services which prove of benefit to those who legitimately require to journey on a Sunday and quite another for it to tempt people to make Sunday a day primarily for recreation in the shape of picnics, sports, etc. The matter is not likely to lje allowed to rest, but it would seem that, if the policy of tlie Railway Department be challenged in the House, criticism will he met by a plea of expediency.