SUNDAY WORK. What is Illegal and What is Not ?

Free Lance, Volume V, Issue 259, 17 June 1905, Page 6

SUNDAY WORK. What is Illegal and What is Not ?

A CLERK may plant cabbages on a Sunday, but a Chinaman who is a gardener must not. If he does, he breaks the law The clerk doesn't break the law If the clerk had a balance to get, and hoed the Chinaman's garden while the Chinaman found the balance, both gentlemen would be withm the law. This we gather from a perusal of a report of an Auckland case, 111 which a policeman with a halo around his head, the thirty-nine articles of the Christian faith m his waistcoat pocket, and other evidences of his spotlessness, ai rested a Chinaman, and got him fined 5s foi hoeing his potato patch on Sunday • * ■» It didn't occur to the policeman that he himself was morally breaking the law by following his avocation on the Sunday, and it didn t matter to him, or to the magistiate or anybody, that the Chinaman hasn't got a Sunday. When the Celestial was before the Court it \\ as made to appear that his most heinous sin was m having hoed potatoes "m sight of people going to church. The magistrate, m fining him, told him to grow a good, high hedge — so that the sense of the church-goer«-should not be shocked You see, the church-goeis were going to church, where they would hear the parson following his usual avocation, thus (of course only moially) breaking the law the Chinaman broke, and was fined for The magistrate told the Chinaman he could work on Sxmday, but not at his calling. The obvious way out of the difficulty is for the laundercr

to change places with the vegetable grower for Sunday. They still offend the way-side church-goer, but they don't break the law Curious, isn't it 1 * * * Now, everybody knows the Chinamen around Wellington work on Sunday Thus we conclude that the policemen around here are either (1) too tired to worry, or (2) have not yet been supplied with haloes and the thirty-nine articles. Of course, it is wrong for Chinese gardeners to work on the Sabbath, and, as this is ao, it is equally wrong for the bootmaker to dig his bulbs up, or the butcher to. chop his week's supply of firewood — but it isn't illegal. * * * The Council of Churches, tell us that it is also wrong for vehicles to ply for hire on Sunday. "Vehicle" shall not include the butcher's horse ridden by the parson, nor can a ''clergyman's bike" be deemed to be a vehicle. It is legal, however. Since Mr. Kettle has fined the Auckland Chinaman ss, there is a precedent for immediate action by the Wellington police, who may enrich the Justice Department by about £2 10s if they are smart And, considering that they haven't had a single fan-tan raid (although fan-tan is still proceeding merrily) for several weeks, it is up to them to. break out into distinguished conduct once more.