SUNDAY CRICKET

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22352, 25 February 1936, Page 10

SUNDAY CRICKET

REQUEST BY CLUB PLAY ON PUBLIC RESERVE OTAHUHU COUNCIL'S REFUSAL \ A request for permission to play cricket on a public reserve on Sunday was refused by tlio Otahuhu Borough Council Inst night. Wlieu the Leo and Arlington Cricket Club's application was read the Mayor, Mr. C. R. Petrie, M.P., said the council would have to take notice as there seemed a danger of Sunday cricket becoming a practice. Special permission had been given the club for one match previously. Mr. J. J. Graham said he understood the match in question could only bo played on a Sunday. Mr. W. Morton said lie objected strongly to play on public reserves. It would be a, different matter if play was on private grounds. The Mayor said this would open up the whole question of Sunday play, and if the application was granted the council could anticipate similar requests for play on Sturges Park. The application was refused on a vote, Messrs. Graham and W. D. Cowper dissenting. EXCURSIONS CONDEMNED " STEP TOWARD PAGANISM " [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT] PUKEKOHE, Monday Criticism of Sunday excursions was voiced by the Rev. H. H. Jeffreys while preaching in the Pukekohe Methodist Church yesterday. Mr. Jeffreys contended that the quiet Sunday, with family worship, catered for human need in a much more inspiring and real manner than pleasure-seeking. " The rapid secularisation of the Christian sabbath is a major step toward a national paganism," he declared. " The contempt for the observance of this day, with its significance for the Christian faith, is an indication of a widespread ignorance, or denial, of Christian realities." Mr. Jeffreys said that although he fully appreciated the need of fresh air, sunshine and recreation for those whose work kept them within doors during the week, he questioned on physical, economic, moral and spiritual grounds whether the best interests of tlio people were served by the nature of the Sunday excursion. " Physically, it was more often exhaustive than recreative; economically, it added another day of expenditure to the family or individual, budget; and morally it obviously had definite avenues of temptation, while its spiritual value was negative. The Sunday excursion demanded the employment of many workers, "for whom additional pay, or, alternatively, time off, was poor compensation for the loss of a day for which no equivalent could be found.