CHURCH PROTEST.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20256, 16 March 1934, Page 5

CHURCH PROTEST.

Holding of Royal Show on Good Friday. LAYMEN’S PETITION. (Special to the “ Star.”) SYDNEY, March 6. As surely as the Easter season comes round here a protest is presented to the State Government against holding the Royal Agricultural Show on Good Friday. When Sir Francis Suttor was president of the R.A.S., the protest was a “ hardy annual.” Sir Francis was also chairman of the Bathurst Anglican Synod, and it was felt that his dual office placed him in an anomalous and difficult position. But Sir Francis took what he regarded as a commonsense view of the question, and always refused to allow the objectors to make vise of him or his position in the Anglican Church as a lever against the R.A.S. This year, however, the objectors developed a novel and unexpected line of attack. The)' got up a “ laymen’s protest,’! secured several thousand signatures, and launched it suddenly at the Cabinet just after the Premier’s return from his summer holiday. Among ether things, the petition sets forth that there is in this country a strong feeling that the holding of the show on Good Friday constitutes “ a grave misuse of this solemn day.” It argues also that many who do not share this conviction on their own account believe that “ it is wrong to outrage the feelings of so many fellow citizens by holding a public carnival on this day.” Taken rather aback by this sudden onslaught, Ministers could only fall back upon the argument by which the annual protest has often been met before—that as the RA.S. has made all its arrangements no interference is possible this year. But Mr Stevens is so far impressed that he has arranged for a conference between Ministers and representatives of the R.A.S., and the petitioners are to hear more of this later on.