SUNDAY EXCURSION TRAINS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19904, 25 September 1926, Page 12

SUNDAY EXCURSION TRAINS.

Upon the question whether excursion trains should be run on Sundays there is a somewhat sharp difference of opinion among members of the community. To a section of the church-going public these trains are obnoxious. But on the other side will be ranged the great majority of non-church-going people and a certain proportion of church-goers, so that there is little doubt what the verdict would be were a plebiscite taken on the subject. The division of opinion on the question that exists among church representatives was rather strikingly illustrated this week in the course of a discussion in the Christchurch Diocesan Synod. The fact that the Government haa lately organised Sunday excursion trains to Otira provided the occasion for a motion that would have committed the Synod to entering nn emphatic protest agaiust the action of the Government in running Sunday excursion trains. In deference to the views expressed by some of his colleagues, the author of this proposal agreed to modify it by eliminating the word “protest” in favour of “disapproval,” but, even thus weakened, the terms of the motion were too emphatic for most of those present. Ultimately the argument ended in the adoption, apparently by the narrowest of majorities, of a resolution to the effect that th<> Synod viewed with “grave disquietude” the organisation of Sunday railway excursions, and asked the Government to co-operate with the church iu preserv-

ing the sanctity of the Sabbath. The discussion had Its instructive aspects, particularly in the circumstance that even a body like the Christchurch Diocesan Synod felt the necessity of recognising that it would be venturing on treacherous ground in entering an “emphatic protest” against Sunday excursion trains, and in the fact that those of its members who supported the motion merely expressive of disquietude were hardly more numerous than those who regarded the matter as one concerning which there is room for so much difference of opinion that it were best left alone. The support that is accorded to these Sunday excursion trains indicates, of course, that they are appreciated by the public and that they meet a demand. There is a certain amount of cant, it is to be feared, about the talk of the preservation of the sanctity of the Sabbath. So long as they show due regard to the feelings and susceptibilities of their fellows, people must be allowed to judge for themselves as to how they spend their Sundays. Nowadays the position, as affecting the public that seeks a change of scene on Sundays becomes almost narrowed down to this, chat those who possess motor cars take their Sunday excursions at their pleasure, while others, who do not possess cars and are without the means to hire cars, are condemned to - remain in the cities on a Sunday unless there is a train to take them afield. It is not for the churches' to say that the public shall not have the benefit of Sunday excursion trains. The fact that the Government gets revenue from such trains is neither here nor there. The decisive factor should be whether these trains supply a public want. Some home-truths were uttered in the course of the discussion at the Christchurch Diocesan Synod. One speaker pointed to the fact that even members of the Synod had their own cars, and went for a run into the country after church. It would go forth to the world, declared another speaker, that the Synod did not know its own mind about Sunday. The sagacity of the observation may be admitted. The objections to Sunday excursion trains appear sometimes to be based on the idea that they discourage church-goers. But those who desire to go to church will do so, and those who do not so desire will stay away, whether Sunday excursion trains are run or not.