SUNDAY OBSERVANCE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 19 February 1931, Page 9

SUNDAY OBSERVANCE

(To the Editor) Sjr,—The Prime Minister requested the people of New Zealand (o observe Sunday the eighth of February as a day of mourning and intercession for those killed and injured by the earthquake in Bawkes Bay. In the face of the earthquake, the country’s and the world’s present position is it not time for the Government and people of New Zealand to consider whether it is wise to go on with the present wholesale desecration of the Lord’s Day. The Right Hon. Richard Seddon was fond of describing New Zealand as “God’s Own Country,” and for many years New Zealand has certainly been a specially favoured land. The result has been that the Government and people are deliberately set Ling God at defiance. Sunday has been turned into a day of pleasure, or business just as men feel inclined Within the last few years earthquakes have become mere frequent and more disastrous, while riie Government have to confess their cdfiiculty in coping, with the serious political problems that are facing every nation in the world. Are we, as a nation, and individually going to persist in our present course? If so, we shall find that “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city the watchman waketh but in vain.”—l am, etc., E. DODSON SMITH. Pakawau, Collingwood, 17th February.