The Ashburton Guardian. Manga Est Veritas et Prevalebit FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1883. A Sunday Train.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1090, 2 November 1883, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Manga Est Veritas et Prevalebit FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1883. A Sunday Train.

6 The motion which Mr John Lambie 6 has given notice that he intends to 0 move at the next meeting of the Ash--6 burton County Council, viz., that the Minister of Public Works be requested ® to instruct the Railway Department to 6 run a train between here and Christchurch, will most likely rouse a good deal of opposition. Those Sabbatarians who hold that the Lord’s Day 6 should be one of absolute rest and who oppose the opening of museums and g public libraries at the only time when 0 people most likely to be benefited can 0 pay such institutions a visit will raise - their voice against the proposal, as a 6 desecration. We may say at once that we have no sympathy with these extre--0 mists, for anybody who has visited the 0 Christchurch museum on a Sunday and watched the orderly and interested 0 crowd of visitors to that place could not have failed to be impressed with 0 the fact that we have here a powerful 6 educational institution, which would be ® a dead letter to a vast number of persons were it closed on that particular g day. In this we in the colonies are certainly ahead of the Old Country, 9 where, up to the present, such an innovation has been successfully opposed 3 by the so-called religious party. For our part, we never could see any true religion in the doctrine that we should 6 make amends for being worldly on six days in the week by being miserable on 6 the seventh, and this in not a few cases seems to be the guiding influence in the 3 observance of the Sabbath. Indeed, 0 we could not logically object to the 6 motion of Mr Lambie on the grounds that to travel on the Sunday was 6 morally wrong, as the principle is - already acquiesced in in the colony. 5 Both in Christchurch and Dunedin the tramways drive a roaring trade on that day, and they are an unquestionable ) convenience to large numbers of people, while trains run between the cities 5 named and Lyttelton and Port dial > mers. Still, it has always been recog- ) nised that whatever work was done on * Sundays should be limited to what was ( absolutely necessary, and the reason why trains run to the seaport towns is 1 that passengers by steamers would be otherwise much inconvenienced. The 1 question is, can the same plea be put ' forward by Mr Lambie in support of his ' motion? No doubt a Sunday train , between Ashburton and Christchurch i would be an advantage to some people, i but when the novelty had worn off we 1 are afraid that very few would avail 1 themselves of the privilege. For this reason we think that even if the motion 1 is carried by the County Council the Government will not consent to make an experiment which would undoubtedly be an expensive one, and which in the present circumstances is scarcely called for. Nor is it very apparent why Ashburton should expect to be especially favored in this respect, and it is only natural to suppose that if this advantage were accorded to us the Government would be deluged with similar applications’ ( from other quarters. People living within twenty or thirty miles of Timaru or Oamaru would want to know why they should not be enabled to visit their friends in those towns, and it would be impossible logically to refuse a like experiment being made elsewhere. Thus we should find trains tunning on Sunday the same as on other days during the week, the employees would be deprived of the rest they deserve quite as much as other men. If it could be shown that it would be for the benefit of the general public that the suggestion of Mr Lambie should be given effect to, the argument that a comparatively few men would be compelled to work would not hold water, but that is precisely what we think will be found difficult, if not impossible, to establish.