SUNDAY PICNICS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 88, 13 March 1941, Page 8

SUNDAY PICNICS

In a letter to the promoters of a recent Sunday picnic, the vicar of St. Peter's Anglican Church, Terrace End (Rev. F. S. Ramson) and the vestry state that they desire to make known to the recipients and the public of Palmerston North their very strong disapproval of the action in organising a picnic for certain children of Palmerston North. “You must know,” the letter proceeds, “that our leaders, in Great Britain and in New Zealand, claim that we are fighting to preserve the Christian religion. AA’e cannot imagine any action more likely to destroy the Christian religion than Sunday picnics.” A similar letter forwarded to the promoters by Rev. Clarence Eaton (president) and Rev. Robert AVarnock (secretary) of the Palmerston North Ministers’ Association states, inter alia: —“At a time like this, when an earnest appeal is directed to the citizens of our city to maintain a high standard of morale, as our finest contribution to the national cause, wc feel it particularly deplorable that any responsible citizens should heedlessly put serious hindrances in the way of the religious education of our young people. AA’e grieve the more because it is reported that, as part of the Sunday afternoon entertainment, a trotting event was held. - . . Such unconcern for the welfare <jf our children must compel a strong protest from every citizen solicitous for the moral and religious training of the rising generation. The issues are so grave that our association feels not only justified in making this earnest personal protest, but in making it public.”