SUNDAY SPORT.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17221, 3 October 1927, Page 4

SUNDAY SPORT.

ATTITUDE OF CHURCHMEN.

"DEAD AGAINST IT." Organised Sunday sport is not favoured by Sydney churchmen, who have no hesitation in condemning the Bembala Council for its action in deciding to allow Sunday football a that district. A representative of the Sydney Telegraph Pictorial sought the views of leading ministers of the large Sydney churches on the matter. ■ In each instance opinion was decidedly against any incursion of the traditional Sunday quiet by sport, as such, and in one instance—that of Rev. T. E. Ruth—the feeling was that sportshould be saved from itself. "In the interests of sport," said Mr Ruth, "we ought to have one day free from it." Rev. 11. C. Foreman (Methodist) : "I am decidedly opposed to organised sport on Sunday, and I think that the council vote is an outrage against the collective conscience of the community." Rev. Hugh Paton (Moderator of the Presbyterian Church) : "I am altogether against it. Wo have plenty of days for sport, and our Sunday has been a great boon to us. It would be a pity to spoil it." modern Attitude. Mr R. 11. Swainson, secretary of the Y.M.C.A., who recently arrived from Manchester, England, was also "dead against organised sport on Sunday," on religious, economic and physical grounds, but said that he had much sympathy for the man who felt that he needed some recreation that day. He thought that the churches long ago might have better sensed the ! modern attitude towards the question, and have re-arranged their services to allow of more time for leisure to the individual. But, when organised sport attempted to foist itself on the community on Sunday, it became a moral issue. The Y.M.C.A. secretary also stated that he had travelled considerably in Europe in connection with Y.M.C.A. work, and knew the feeling of the people in fourteen different countries. •'Repeatedly 1 was told," Mr Swainson said, "that people in these countries admired the quietness of our English Sunday, and wished that they could adopt it." At Bombala, Rev. Father John A. Roche, favouring Sunday sport, is standing for a vacancy in the council against Mr 11. R. Bryan, who is being put forward by the opponents of that idea.