SUNDAY GARDENING.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43382, 8 October 1908, Page 3

SUNDAY GARDENING.

[To the Editor.] SIR, —Your many readers will no doubt remember that some little time ago an •sample was made of some Chinamen in the Auckland Court who indulged in the practice of Sunday gardening. One can almost make an excuse for the wily Celestial in endeavouring to get ahead of his European competitors, but it is certainly a most digraceful thing that we, who send missionaries into China, India, and Africa, to teach the natives to respect the Sabbath and keep it holy, should have so far forgotten our own responsibilities, as to indulge in the above disgraceful practice. For several Sundays recently while out walking, and going to Church, I have noticed men working in their gardens as if it was the only day they had : on one occasion digging, planting seeds, etc., and in another garden the industrious individual was shifting trees, while a little further on another was working for all he was worth digging what appeared to be a piece of new ground. Now, sir, I move about a good deal from one town to another, and can honestly say I have never seen such a disgraceful practice indulged in especially when it is known that the children of these individuals were in the various gardens at time. On enquiry I find that each offender enjoys the privilege of a half-holiday every week, and as neither of them make their living at gardening, it certainly is not a case of necessity that makes them break the Sabbath. Hoping this will have the desired effect of making each father remember his duty to his children. —I am, etc., Respector of THU Sabbath.