Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, MAY 9, 1874. "MEASURES, NOT MEM."

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 354, 9 May 1874, Page 2

Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, MAY 9, 1874. "MEASURES, NOT MEM."

Little has been done in the Provincial Council. . One thing has been done fur which We are thankful : the motion fo Mr. Stout, which was in effect to secularise the Sunday by* vote of the Council, has been lost, the previous question having been carried by a dear majority. The motion was cunningly devised. It proposed thati .Government o,fficials should have one clear day in each week ; but as it did not name 'the day;->st was'^we' believe, rightly judged there lay under the . motion i the attempt to < pronounce a judgment tha.t Governments ,could; with impunity, treat with disrespect the day which is held sacred by the Christian community. Had the motion been even to reduce, within the smallest possible compass, the work required at the hands of Government officials on the usual day of rest, so that these might have the day as nearly as possible in its entirety, to spend as th^ir consciences approved, Mr. Stout would have earned the thanks of a lai'ge portion of the community ; but as it was in the direction of substituting another day for the one the Christian Church observes, we regard it in the light of requiring a deliverance from the the Council that the- day has no obligation and claims upon their consideration. We oppose enforced observance of the Lord's day ; and ws" oppose this motion, which we regard as iiivolving this position on ihe part'bf the Caunc.il - Were this all that the motion involves, ' we should oppose it ; but when we regard the cunsequeucus likely to be involved in it, we would oppose it more earnestly still. Once begin in this way, and every demand of an unreasonable public would have to be complied with. The postoffice would have to be open on the Sunday ; the. telegraph clerks would have to be at theiF places the, whole of the Sunday ; the railways, when opened, would be kept going the whole of the Sunday ; aud Government employ would have to" be confined to' those 'vho have no faith whatever in the obligations of the day. -The legislation would be -entirely a class legislation, and rest assured matters would nut rest here. Once let it be established under the auspices of the Government that the Sunday has no claims upon vs — that the Sabbath law is utterly abrogated, and , then we shall have seven days' work all over. It is true the "QtagQ Pajly Times." is, dreadfully

wroth at the men who opposed Mr. Stout's motion, and* dubbed them no friends of the working men, and heaped upon them the usual quantity of abuse for putting in a word\on tlehajf ;of the Sabbath. It is true that/the * { '»Times " says once his motion wer6 affirmed, Mr. Stout or another might have najiied the, Sunday. Then, why was it not done 1 This very reticence was suspicious ; and we are not to bo misled by the ," Times "as to accepting a blank form into which anything or no thing may be put.

A Government has at last been formed, although we cannot say it tnVcets with our approval. The goldlields, to all intents and purposes, are left out in the cold. Mr. Turnbull said, when the policy of the Government was announced, it would probably be found that the interests of the goldfields had not been overlooked ; but any Government in which the offices of Secretary for Public Works and Goldfields are dissociated cannot be for the interests of the goldfields. ' The office of Goldfields .Secretary, if one should be appointed, will prove to be purely of an ornamental kind, and we need not expect any goldfields member will be/found to accept thu office on such terms. On, these grounds alone therefore we cannot look with favor" upon the new Executive.