Public Opinion

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1551, 17 February 1874, Page 120

Public Opinion

THE SABBATH QUESTION. Otago Guardian. "In the nave, a man at the top of a pair of steps wqs painting a case. I looked up at him and said, • Alone in dointf evil?' 'I bate myself for it,' replied the man. ' But what am Ito do? My master is-giving me £3 a week to work until his jobs are compl te, and he says that, seven days is the rule in this country; but I shall only haveanother cursed Sunday; after this I shall never work on the Lord's-day." This is a passage of the letter from Vienna, of a Mr. Weyland, who was sent thither by the London City Mission to endeavor to induce the English-speaking exhibitors not to exhibit their goods on the Lord's-day, , and to release their servants from attendance on that day. And so, as that workman's employer said, " seven days is the rule in this country:" just so! There is a world of suggestive meaning in that simple innocent little phrase. One is tempted to ask how came it that seven days is the rule in that country ? The reflections which start in response to the query, are not by any manner of means pleasant to entertain, nor is it easy to trace the steps Which by slow degrees brought about this economic state of manners. The ugly fact is quite clear that, while in Vienna Sunday observance is utterly disregarded, the Viennese workmen know to their cost that seven days is the rule in that country. One begins to suspect that it would be a perfectly legitimate mode of reasoning to infer that somehow or other the one might be the cause of the other. But let us see what more the same correspondent has to tell about this Viennesse Sunday and the Viennese workmen. He tells how he had met the British workmen in their houses, how he had held religious services with them, and how those among them who had worked on Sundays had assured him " that they had had their dose, and would never enter into such bondage again." He then goes on: " And now I must tell you cheering news. On Sunday morning I noticed that several of the largo shops in the King Strasse were closed, and, as the day advauced, several others. Upon inquiry, I was told that a feeling in favor of a Sunday free from toil has been expressed by many of the youug shopmen. They plead their natural right, and the example of England as to its benefit. This has had its effect, and there is a silent movement at work through the Emperor's City in favor of iabbath observance." We commend these suggestive little bits to the serious reflection of our Dunedin workmen and our enthusiastic young shopmen. Let them just ask themselves whether, if they become parties to the secularizing of the Sunday, they may not be making the rod which will, at some not very distant day, scourge their own backs? Let them just think a little, whether in letting in the thiu end of the wedge at the Dunedin Athenseum, they may not be establishing a precedent fraught with bitter sorrow and social slavery hereafter ? Lei them consider whether it is not wiser, by a little present self-denial, to conserve a privilege which they now enjoy, than, after thoughtlessly allowing it to slip away from them, to find themselves, like the young shopmen of the Ring Strasse, pleading, perhaps in vain, their natural right, and engaged like them in a movement in favor of Sunday observance. Of course, there will be no lack of so-called practical people who will poohpooh all this. There are always such sham-practical, pragmatical persons who see exactly the length of their own noses, and complacently sneer at any who presume to see farther. This is the sort of sham philosophers whom the author of " Erewhon" saw in that country, and of whom he says : —" Provided they do not actually see the money dropping out of heir pockets, or suffer immediate physical pain, they would not listen to any argument as to the waste of money and happiness which their folly caused them. But this had an effect which I have little reason so complaiD, for I was allowed to call them life-long selfdeceivers to their faces, and they said it was quite true but that it did not matter." Now, let not the Dunedin workmen and shopmen deceive themselves in this matter. Let them not imagine that, because the contingency of Sunday labor is at present a remote one in this colony, it is therefore an impossible one. The relations of capital and labor, which are just now so favorable t-o the employes, can not possibly always, or indeed very long, continue. The day will assuredly come when the whip which the employes hold at present will pass over to the hand of the capitalist, and he will use it to a purpose. See what is passing just now in Victoria in this .respect. An Act was passed to restrain the hours oi female labor. The

capitalists, feeling that the existing supply of female labor gave them an advantage, quietly ignored the law, buttoned up their 1 breeches pockets, and refused to pay for the hours of work which the law had struck off. What is the result ? The unfortunate workwomen, unable to subsist on the wages paid, petition for tbe removal of the restraint on the hours, and the Chief Secretary is obliged to exercise the power which the Act gave him of interposing in their Sbehalf. Thus the capitalists are masters of' the situation, and laugh at the law. Now we say to the employed who may be disposed to listen to the'■seductions of those persons who, for purposes of their own, are endeavoring to secularize the Sunday: "Take care how you act hastily ! Consider well what you do.' Remem-

ber that in matters of social economy,

in the relations of capital and labor, if'you once break in upon the integrity of that day of respite from worldly toil ;-iwkich,i) till now, has rested upon the sure foundations of custom and old associations; hedged round by rever>®W#Allfended by the sanction of religion—remember, we say, if you vainly this, you betray what r 'iM'%<& Oeikle and a citadel,a holy

and dusty paths of worldliness, and a city of refuge where the weak in worldly wealth may be sheltered from the cruel baud of pursuing avarice. Remember, if you abandon the'vantage-ground, not all the self-sacrificing and devoted efforts of philanthrophy, not all the power of positive legislation, can reinstate you in it. Experience has most indubitably proved that. On that point there is not the smallest room for doubt; for all the failures of the past teach the same lesson. Against the tyranny of capital, when the state of the labor market is favorable to it, legislature is perfectly powerless." We regard this matter of the openiug of the Athenaeum on Sunday solely from the point of view of social expediency. We are quite free to take that side on which the balance of expediency can be shown to be. But we are bound to say that, up to the present time, while we can see on the one side the gravest economic and social danger, all we have yet been shown on the other is simply a convenience of a number of people. We said before that the advocates of change must prove their case; but that they have not yet in our opinion, done. There are some.other considerations on this matter deserving of careful examination, but which we have not here space for, and to which we shall return. One of these is the great likelihood, in the event of the motion being affirmed, that the institution will be at once divided into two camps' This we would, if possible, avoid. Tuapeka Times. A resolution was passed on Friday last at the annual meeting of the Dunedin Athenaeum, to open the Institution for 4 hours on Sunday, that we cannot allow to pass unchallenged. We should certainly deprecate the consequences of fhis resolution because a precedent to all kindred institutions throughout the province. In taking up this matter, we do not intend to introduce into our columns the vexed theological question; but to consider it in that aspect which lies more akin to the line pursued by this journal. If men are not convinced as to the sacredness of the clay by Scriptural arguments, we have always held that no act of Parliament aud no measures taken on purely social grounds can avail to ensure its proper observance. But this does not mean that we ought to abandon all attempts to preserve the institution of a seventh day's rest, and give up everything to those who, whether from honest or vicious convictions, set at defiance all claims put forth on behalf of the day. It is one thing for a party to say we believe in the day as one of rest from toil, and to be used for devotional purposes, and we do not call upon any to follow our practices unless they hold our convictions, and quite another for the party to be called upon a sacrifice their views and meet a demand opposed to their convictions. Such a requirement is tyranny. Now it appears to us this is what the resolution passed by the small majority of members in the Dunedin Atlienffium has done. They require the members who hold that the Sabbath is a divine institution either to sanction by their support a state of things they believe to be wrong, or leave the Institution. To take part in the management of the Institution, and be consistent, a man must either erase the Lord's Day from Christianity or be sceptical alto gether as to its claims. . . We would remind our readers that ,£SOO of public money was voted to the institution last year and now it will be by no fault of the majority if that institution is not a class one. And we decidedly object to the voting of public money to class institutions. We recently opposed denominational schools at public expense, and we are only consistent when we call attention to this aspect of the question as regards the Dunedin Athenaeum. We desire to put no restraint on the party who held these views on the Sunday question, only they ought, like the rest of the community, to support them at their own expense. They can build or lease premises for themselves where they can carry out their views: but they ought not to look for public money on behalf of an institution which, iu its management, defies the honest convictons of a large body of the public. . . A repetition of such experiments will imperil our Athenaeums, which are fitted to do much good, and we cannot help thinking the resolution passed at least short-sighted.