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Evening Star, Issue 3505, 18 May 1874, Page 2

A great deal of misdirected energy is at the present time being brought into action by well-meaning persons who desire that people shall be deprived of the opportunity of spending their Sundays in the way moat con* ducive to their enjoyment. We notice that numerous petitions have been presented to the Council, asking that body to put a stop to the running of Sunday trains. We do not know how the people of Blueskin and other up-country localities would be affected if the request of these petitioners were acceded to : probably they would not suffer any great inconvenience from the stoppage of Sunday trains, as they lire for the most part at a considerable distance from any railway statibn; but we are quite certain that the majority of the working men of Dunedin would consider it a great hardship if they were debarred from taking an occasional trip to the Port, because certain peoplehave J ewisb proclivities, and regard Sunday as a day on which men and woman should make themselves as miserable as they can. We have no wish to quarrel with the Sabbatarians, as long as they keep their Sabbatarianism to themselves. A man may, if he likes, go to church three times on Sunday, and stay to protracted meeting ; he may refuse to eat a hot dinner, and may look as solemn as an undertaker, if he thinks that the religion he professes requires him so to do. A man deserves only praise for contrying to do what he conceives to be right. But the moment he endeavors to compel others to follow in his footsteps, to do what his religion requires, he is transgressing the gold«n rule —“Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you.” If those who conscientiously believe that the best mid most rational way of spending the Sunday afternoon is to take a trip to the Port, get change of scene, breathy the fresh sea air, and return to town invigorated and braced up for the next week’s exertions, were to endeavor to get a law passed to compel all persons to go by train to the Port every Sunday afternoon, their conduct would be as wrong as it would be absurd. But we fail to Sue in what respect it would differ from that of those who endeavor to make people stay at home and read good books, or stroll listlessly about the town or its neighborhood on the Sunday afternoon, because they think that is the best and most fitting way of spending the Sabbath. The religious element cannot be fairly imported into the discussion at all because the j*tate is of no religion, and it is the State that is asked to interfere. It must decide the question on non-religious grounds. Its decision ought evidently to be that, if any large section of the community desire to have trains available on Sunday, they shall have them. The only valid objection to the running of trains to Port Chalmers on Sunday afternoons is, that the railway employes thus have their day of rest interfered with. It seems .to us that Mr Stout s motion, in favor of giving every Government employe one day in seven, would have met this difficulty; for some perfectly unaccountable reason this motion was not carried.