The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 1883. HOLIDAY FESTIVITIES.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 73, 1 March 1883, Page 2

The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 1883. HOLIDAY FESTIVITIES.

-♦ It id much to be regretted that the Easter holidays are not to be pennir:rd to pass over without certain discussions being raised as to whether Good Friday should or should not be used by the general public as a day of festivity and amusement. The protest against it is based on purely religious feeling. A great number of the colonists do not believe in Good Friday being a sucred holiday, and living as we do in a condition of perfect religious freedom, any interfer» ence by any one religious section is certain to be resented by the others. Unhappily- this is the case as regards the coming Raster holidays, and the opinionsl expressed by a rev gentleman of Kangitikei against the running of excursion trains on the occasion of these holidays has drawn from our contemporary, the Wanganui Herald, a leader on the subject, which, being <l hard hitting," is certain to piovoke a rejoinder that will not tend to sooth the angry feelings of the disputants. Much stress is laid on the fact that the railway employes are prevented by holiday and Sunday trains from enjoying religious instruction, or from participating in the pleasures of holiday seekers. We believe that rail way employes are as much alive to their own interests as any other class of men, and if they had any objection to working on any particular day, their grievdnce, real or imiiginary, would soon be made public. The excitement of working excursion trains is a* much appreciated by the railway hands as by the public, and the only wrong under which they labor on such occasions is that the extra hours do not bring in extra pay to the whole ot the officers on duty during such times. The Herald says; — "An excursion into the country will do more for the denizens of the town than oceans of medicines and armies of doctors." Let them, therefore, enjoy their holiday in the country, and receive both moral and physical benefit. We cordially agree with our contemporary, and join with him in hoping all will enj«»y theinselyes in their own particular fashion on Good Friday, co that all may find themselves better lor the day.