South Australia - Religion

"The Church in a New Land" is discussed in the Advertiser (special edition), 1 September 1936, page 82.

Breaking the Sabbath

(Taken from Geoffrey H. Manning's A Colonial Experience)

We have travelled a long way from the Sabbath observance of the stern Presbyterians, but the [church] does not want us to travel too far. The function of the church is to keep the brakes on.

In the fledgling colony of South Australia many spokesmen for several religious denominations demanded that the Sabbath day be observed in the time-honoured manner of Great Britain. Boots and shoes had to be cleaned the day before and as little cooking as possible was to be done on the day - in some homes the potatoes were peeled and the peas shelled on the Saturday. After attending church in the morning, Sunday school in the afternoon and church again in the evening, the family gathered around the piano and sang hymns with much fervour, before bedding down no later than 10 pm. Sunday was, assuredly, a day of prayer and rest!

This dogmatic stance stemmed from the two most potent religious movements of the nineteenth century, namely those who adhered to the faith of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches, whose followers shared a common piety, a strict church discipline and a total way of life that avoided 'frivolous entertainments and all worldly pleasures'.

Their creed included the stipulation that the Sabbath day was to be one devoted to worship and meditation and that any act, such as engaging in sporting activity, hiking or visiting public institutions, which included libraries, art galleries, museums, etc., was sinful and a direct challenge to the traditions and sacredness of the day.

The question of opening the South Australian Museum and Institute during a portion of Sunday was brought to the notice of the House of Assembly in July 1879 and this action had the support of many citizens. It was resisted by many estimable members of the community on the ground of having a tendency to demoralise by interfering with the due observance of the Sabbath.

If the mode of spending the day of rest at that time left nothing to be desired this argument would have been unanswerable, but such was not the case. Indeed, there was a very large number of persons who failed to find either in religious duties, in the higher social enjoyment, or in the opportunities for intellectual improvement and innocent recreation then open to them, any satisfactory occupation of their spare time.

There were hundreds of young people, and of men and women too, who spent their Sundays in such a way as to contribute neither to their moral or mental improvement. Promenading about town, lounging listlessly at street corners, drinking in the back parlours of public houses in spite of Nock's Act - such were some of the means adopted by many for disposing of the time which would have otherwise hung most heavily upon them. To furnish an innocent, healthful and instructive means of spending a few hours on the Sunday to persons thus destitute of resource may have been considered by many an object worthy of the attention of Parliament.

The first prosecution for desecration of the Sabbath day was heard before Mr Beddome, Special Magistrate, in 1872, when 'Henderson and others' were accused of 'assembling on the Lord's day to engage in the pastime of horse racing.' It had been accepted all but a matter of course that the law had a distinct hold upon those who glaringly desecrated the Sunday, either in the way of amusement or business.

The accused had the charge laid against them under an Act passed in 1623 under the reign of that pious monarch, James I; by that Act various unlawful sports were interdicted, but horse racing was not included in it. Presumably, in 1872, there was no modern legislation, imperial or colonial, bearing upon the question. In any event, the magistrate declared that the information before him disclosed no offence and, consequently, dismissed the complaint.

The Protestant churches regard Sunday public entertainments as unhealthy signs of a threat to the sacredness of the day. They contend that the Sabbath day was instituted by God for man's sake and it might be said that it was a law of nature. Laws of nature were laws of God and to violate the laws of holiness led to man suffering. Therefore, in the interests of the working man, it is of primary importance to preserve, without violation, the sacredness of the Lord's day.

One important feature of the whole debate, which has been overlooked by many on both sides, is the fact that the original Sabbath is, as every Biblical scholar knows, not the Sunday! Christians, in fact, do not observe that Sabbath at all and take the first day of the week as their day of rest instead of the seventh; but there are many who attach no importance to any day of rest and reject the Sabbath and Sunday alike.

Now the Jews observe their Sabbath and keep it holy. If on the first day of the week they choose to race horses, why should they not do so? Why should they be compelled to the almost penal servitude of a day, which is to them only an ordinary day, when the example is before them that Christians systematically violate the original Sabbath in every possible way?

Presbyterians do not recognise any of the days set apart for Christian worship or repentance except the Sunday, which they choose to confuse with the Sabbath, and they would deem it the essence of injustice to be forced by law into compliance with the rules of churches with which they have no sympathy.

The value of a man's religious belief is properly to be tested by his conduct. Those nations which are most rigidly Sabbatarian are amongst the most immoral. Why should one man's Sabbath or Sunday be held more sacred than another's, especially in a country which has no State religion. The solemn fast of Good Friday is made use of in this country as a festival day. Picnic parties, races, wrestling and shooting matches form some of the amusements of those who most delight in rendering the Sunday or Sabbath, as the case may be, a day of sorrow and misery.

The editor of The Irish Harp contended that all Catholics, and a large proportion of Anglicans, looked upon proceedings of this kind with horror and disgust. Further, he was outraged that no law stepped in to check these intrusions on their feelings and, although these two bodies formed a majority of the Christians in the State, no one attempted to prevent what they looked upon as a desecration of the most solemn day of the year.

For myself, I believe that the public conscience, and the public sentiment, are quick to detect and to frown upon offences against public decency and propriety, and any attempt to define by law what is, and what is not, a religious observance, or a profanation of the Sabbath or any other 'sacred' day, must end in ignominious failure.

Good sense and good principles of we colonial people should be sufficiently strong to put down breaches of decorum, and when those breaches become so frequent as to amount to public nuisances, it will be time enough to enforce laws if such laws do not exist, to make laws - not based upon religious considerations - but to check excesses which cause public annoyance.15 To the avid sportsman in Adelaide, the Sundays of the Victorian era and beyond were dull, indeed. If it was winter the football had to be put away and golf clubs, perhaps, given no more than a covert practice swing or two indoors. In the summer, no more could be done other than look fondly at cricket bats and tennis racquets. An old Scottish ditty mirrored the unwritten law of the land:

An Adelaide cynic suggested there was no doubt that, with the coming of the 'continental' Sunday to South Australia at the turn of the century, the Sunday night concert helped to empty the churches. He then proceeded to mock Church attitudes that were falling far behind public opinion:

To many, the 'Protestant Sunday' 'recreated the powers and energies of the national life and filled the veins with new blood and the brains with renewed energy'. On the other hand, the so-called 'rational', or 'continental' Sunday, became in the minds of many 'a day of sensual riot whence the consuming fires of lust were fed.' Out went a universal call to 'let us work to abolish that anti-Sunday plant which is springing up all over sunny Australia.'

Recently, the Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide dissented from the main stream of clerical opinion and, in respect of his Church and its adherents, suggested that 'after Mass, pleasure might be indulged in by taking trips to the hills or by playing tennis or golf or cards.' However, the Congregational Church reiterated its stand that such activities would make it easy 'for people to enter a downward path, the end of which was sorrow and perhaps sin.'

Indeed, the Council of Churches was to state categorically:

People would live longer and have much better health if they recognised the Sabbath and refrained from labours and picnics.

An example of this bigotry is exemplified in a denunciation from a pulpit of a barmen's picnic:

On that beautiful Sunday men and women and little children were indulging in foot races... That day hallowed by the tenderest memories of their race, and of every race, had been debauched, defiled and degraded...

General Notes

The desecration of the Sabbath is condemned in the South Australian,
30 June 1848, page 3a:

I feel it my duty to direct public attention to the covert shop-keeping with door ajar in the village on the Sunday, where powder and shot (not to mention other things) can be purchased all day long.

"Sunday Trains" is the subject of controversy in the Register,
29 and 30 April 1856, pages 3d and 3d:

Register

"Railway Servants and Sunday Picnics" is in the Register,
1 and 15 February 1915, pages 11c and 9c,
26, 28 and 29 January 1916, pages 7c, 4f and 5b,
10 March 1916, page 4d.

The Advertiser of 14 September 1858, page 3d carries a letter from a correspondent alluding to the cooking of dinners on Sundays by professional bakers:

I am not going to dispute the argument advanced by, I think, Sam Weller, that "muffins is wholesome"... but I do object on the Sabbath morning and evening to hear in the public streets the cry of "Muffins O" accompanied by the tinkling of a bell... The practice... should be abolished.
(Advertiser,
27 December 1858, page 3d; also see
5 January 1859, page 3d.)

The riding of horses by mail-men on Sundays is discussed in the Register,
25 September 1861, page 2g.

The desecration of the Sabbath by the drivers of bullock teams is reported in the Register,
3 July 1862, page 2f,
"Driving Bullocks on Sundays" on
25 June 1873, page 5b.

Under the heading "Our Rising Blackguards" a correspondent to the Advertiser on 3 July 1862, page 2f says:

At nights, too, several of our squares are filled with the youths of both sexes, indulging in indecorous behaviour or uproarious conduct... Some were romping with the girls... and all forming an assembly at once disgraceful and pitiable - disgraceful that this should occur in a land so noted for its churches and chapels and religious tendencies - and pitiable that these ignorant and misguided children should thus be graduating for other walks of sin and folly... it is a case that may be duplicated in many parts... on a Sabbath day...

The releasing of cattle from pounds on Sundays is discussed in the Register,
31 August 1863, page 3f.

"Sunday Desecration" is in the Register,
10 February 1872, page 4e,
"Sunday Work" on
4 and 7 January 1873, pages 6a and 5f.

"Sundays and Sabbaths" is in The Irish Harp,
17 February 1872, page 4d,
"Sunday Recreation" in the Observer,
26 July 1879, page 12f.

"Shooting on the Sunday" is in the Register,
17 December 1875, page 6g.

"Sunday Work and Recreation" is in the Register,
23 July 1879, page 4e,
"Sabbath and Sunday" on
11 August 1879, page 6f.

Opening the Museum on Sundays is the cause for concern in the Register,
5, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13 and 14 August 1879, pages 5a-b-6f, 6g, 4g-6d, 6e, 6e, 6f and 5a-b.
Also see Adelaide - Museums.

"Is Man Made for the Sabbath" is in The Lantern,
13 September 1879, page 13.

An editorial on Sunday trading in shops is in the Advertiser,
22 November 1879, page 4e.
"Sunday Labour and Shopkeepers" is in the Register,
22 November 1884, page 6g.
Also see Adelaide - Shops.

A "Sunday Parade" of the Volunteer Force is the cause for complaint in the Register,
14 and 16 April 1880, pages 7a and 7f.

"Sunday at Tanunda" is in the Register,
31 May 1881, page 6e.

"Sunday Boating on the Torrens" is in the Register,
1 and 14 June 1881, pages 4d and 5a,
12 July 1881, page 5b.
Also see Torrens, River.

"More Sabbath" is in The Lantern,
11 June 1881, page 9.

"The Sunday Opening of the Art Gallery" is in the Register,
21 June 1881, page 6g.
Also see Adelaide - Art Gallery.

"Sunday Shaving" is in The Lantern,
6 August 1881, pages 2a-9d,
"Sunday Barbering" in the Register,
16 January 1907, page 4f.

"Sunday Labour [on ships]" is in the Register,
31 January 1882, pages 5b-1d (supp.),
10 February 1882, pages 4g-5e,
5, 6 and 8 June 1883, pages 4g-6c, 7g and 7c,
13, 19 and 21 April 1884, pages 7c, 4d-7f and 4g-h-6e,
Observer,
11 February 1882, page 31b.
"Sunday Work on Ships" is in the Register,
29 and 30 January 1892, pages 5b and 5a,
14 and 29 March 1892, pages 5a and 5a.
"Sunday Observance at Port Adelaide" is in the Register,
9 September 1884, page 4g,
"Sunday Trading at Port Adelaide" on
4 December 1884, page 6h,
"Sunday Sailing From Port Adelaide" on
28 January 1887, page 7g; also see
30 May 1910, page 6f.
"Sunday Work at the Port" is in the Register,
25 October 1906, page 6f,
"Sunday Working of Steamers" on
22 December 1906, page 9b.
An interesting editorial on the subject under the heading "Loyal Port Adelaide Workers" is in the Register,
7 February 1916, page 4c.
Also see Port Adelaide - Ships & Shipping.

A complaint about stevedoring being conducted at Port Adelaide on Sundays is made in the Express,
13 and 21 May 1884, pages 3c and 5d-6c,
24 March 1892, page 3f,
Register,
25 October 1906, page 6f.
"Sunday Shipping at Port Adelaide" is in the Register,
30 October 1908, page 4g,
6 November 1908, page 4f,
17 June 1909, page 4g,
30 May 1910, page 6f.

"Shooting on the Sabbath" is in the Register,
27 October 1882, page 1b (supp.).

"Running Sunday Trains on the Hills Railway" is in the Register,
19 July 1883, page 4g.
"Sunday Trains on the Gawler Line" is in the Observer,
27 October 1883, page 30d.
"Sabbath Morning Trains - A Memory" is in the Register,
15 February 1917, page 4e.
"Railway Servants and Sunday Picnics" is in the Register,
5 February 1914, page 9d,
1, 3, 15 and 16 February 1915, pages 11c, 9d 9c and 4e,
26, 27, 28 and 29 January 1916, pages 7c, 7e, 4f and 5b-8h,
9 February 1916, page 6g,
10 March 1916, page 4d.
"Sunday Railway Picnics" is in the Express,
3 February 1916, page 4f.

"The Sunday's Sanctity" is in the Register,
29 August 1883, page 4g.

"Sunday Observance" is in the Register,
3 April 1885, page 4h.

"Fishing on Sunday" is in the Register,
8 February 1886, page 7e.
"Sunday Fishing Wicked?" is in The News,
19 January 1932, page 2d.

"Sunday Concerts in Botanic Park" is in the Register,
5 March 1886, page 7h.
Complaints about "Sunday Trading at the Botanic Gardens" are in the Register,
26 January 1909, page 3g; also see
3 August 1909, page 9a.
Also see Adelaide - Botanic Gardens.

The subject is discussed in the Advertiser,
29 October 1886, page 7d.

The question of "Sunday Labour" is debated in the Register,
31 January 1882, page 5a-1d (supp.),
10, 13 and 18 February 1882, pages 4g, 5b and 5b and
"Sunday Work - Right or Wrong" on
3 March 1902, page 6c.

"Port Lincoln Mails and Sunday Observance" is in the Register,
23 March 1886, page 7g,
14 June 1886, page 7f.

"Desecration of the Sabbath [at Morgan]" is in the Register,
15 October 1886, page 3g.

"Sunday Trading" is in the Register,
28 December 1888, page 7c.

"Sunday Concerts at Glenelg" is in the Register,
17 and 18 January 1889, pages 7e and 3f,
"Sunday Concerts at Semaphore" on
10 March 1890, page 7e.

"Sabbath Observance" is in the Register,
15 February 1889, page 7f.

"Sunday Labour in the Colonies" is in the Register,
18 July 1891, page 4h.

"Sunday Concerts" is in the Register,
10 and 12 February 1892, pages 5b and 5d.

"Sunday Outings to Visiting Athletes" is in the Register,
31 March 1893, page 5d,
"Sunday Picnics to Cricketers" on
1 April 1893, page 6h.

"Sunday Trading" is in the Register,
19 February 1898, page 4i,
7 April 1898, page 4h,
"Sunday Travel and Trade" on
16 April 1898, pages 5a-9h.

"Delivery of Ice on Sundays" is in the Register,
30 November 1900, page 4h.

"A Sunday Picnic" is in the Register,
15 February 1902, page 6f,
"Sunday Work - Right or Wrong?" on
3 March 1902, page 6c.

"Sunday Amusements - How the Public Spend the Sabbath" is in the Register,
18 and 22 February 1904, pages 6a and 6b; also see
3 December 1904, page 11a.
also see Advertiser,
9 October 1906, page 8a.

"Cards on Sundays - Not Illegal in Hotels" is in the Register,
19 March 1907, page 7g.
A court case concerning a "Game of Cards on Sunday" is reported in the Advertiser,
23 March 1907, page 12d,
"Alleged Sunday Cards [in Hotels]" is in the Register,
4 May 1910, page 10c.
Also see Adelaide - Hotels and Lodging Houses.

"The Continental Sunday" is in the Register,
5, 6, 15 and 23 February 1904, pages 2h, 6e, 4g and 4f-8h,
23 November 1904, page 8h; also see
Advertiser,
30 January 1904, page 8i,
30 July 1904, page 9h,
7 and 8 November 1904, pages 9d and 7c,
Register,
7 February 1912, page 6h,
9 May 1912, page 6f.

"Sunday Concerts" is in the Register,
9, 11, 12, 19 and 29 November 1904, pages 3g, 3i, 10c, 5c and 4e.

"Sunday Observance" is in the Register,
19 and 26 November 1904, pages 9f and 11d:

Observer

"Sunday Entertainment Blocked" is in the Register,
22 January 1906, page 5c.
"Sunday Entertainments" is in the Register,
23 October 1906, page 6i,
20 November 1906, page 8c,
12 and 13 March 1907, pages 4d and 6g,
27 April 1907, page 5a.

"The Day of Rest" is in the Register,
30 June 1906, page 6c.

"Sunday Golfing at Gawler" is in the Register,
1 September 1906, page 4h.
"Sunday Golf and Picnics" is in the Register, 27 September 1911, page 12f:

Register

A new links plan at Mount Gambier was abandoned "on account of the conditions required by the town council to prevent Sunday golf" - see Observer, 11 April 1914, page 26c.
"Gawler's Sunday By-Law" is in the Observer,
10 November 1923, page 31d.
"Sunday [Golf] at Gladstone" is in the Register,
29 July 1926, page 7e.
"Golf on Sunday - Protest by Churches" is in the Advertiser,
13 January 1928, page 16c,
7 June 1928, page 18b.
"Sunday Golf" is debated in the open columns of the Advertiser:

Advertiser

"Sunday Working" is in the Register,
5 September 1906, page 6d.

"Alleged Sunday Trading" is in the Register,
10 January 1907, page 8b.

"Sunday Concerts at Semaphore" is in the Register,
16 January 1907, page 8f.

"Sunday Entertainment Condemned" is in the Register,
22 October 1907, page 4e.

"A Pick-and-Shovel Sabbath" is in the Register,
2 March 1908, page 4e.

"Sunday Morning Trams - What Do the Parsons Think" is in the Register,
6 March 1909, page 10g,
"Tramways and Sunday Business" on
15 September 1911, page 9c.
"Tramways Band and the Sabbath" is in the Register,
29 April 1913, page 5f,
17 May 1913, page 14f.

"A Day of Rest" is in the Register,
19 April 1909, page 4d.

"Wowser - What Does it Mean?" is in the Register,
7 May 1910, page 5f.
"What is a Wowser?" is in the Register,
15 and 17 June 1927, pages 10a and 12e,
"Who Are the Wowsers" is in the Observer,
17 November 1928, page 10a:

A wowser is a person who does not want to go to the devil himself, and has a mistaken conviction that he can prevent other people from going... "Desecration of Sabbath" is in the Register,
7 May 1910, page 15c.

"Youths at Sunday Football" is in the Register,
9 August 1910, page 6h; also see
15 August 1910, page 4e.

"Government and Sunday Entertainments" is in the Register,
7 and 10 November 1910, pages 4e and 5h,
2 December 1910, page 6f,
Observer,
12 November 1910, page 40e.

"Sunday Entertainments" is in the Register, 11 February 1911, page 12d:

The government has decided that there shall be no more entertainment in Adelaide on Sunday nights, except they be of a sacred character. It has resolved also that the promoters of the permitted recreations must depend for their revenue upon the result of a plate being sent around among the audience instead of upon the collection of a voluntary donation at the door... "Sunday Concerts - Government to be Defied" is in the Register,
11 and 14 February 1911, pages 14c and 9a,
2, 3 and 4 March 1911, pages 12h, 8h and 12f-15b,
Express,
18 and 20 February 1911, pages 1c and 3i.

"Defiance! - Sunday Shows Held" is in the Register,
20 and 22 February 1911, pages 7c and 5g.

"Sunday Entertainments" is in the Register,
17 March 1911, page 9b,
Advertiser,
10 and 18 March 1911, pages 7c and 8d. Also see
Express,
18 and 20 February 1911, pages 1c and 3i and South Australia - Entertainment and the Arts - Miscellany.

"Sunday Moving Pictures" is in the Register,
20 April 1911, page 6g,
12 April 1911, pages 6e-9a,
6, 7 and 8 June 1911, pages 8g, 3f and 9e.
"Sunday Pictures - A Stir at Port Pirie" is in the Register,
30 May 1918, page 5b,
17 and 19 July 1918, pages 6c-7a and 4g.

"Sunday Entertainment - Superintendent of Public Buildings Sued" is in the Register,
20 and 26 April 1911, pages 9g and 10a.

A Barmans' Sunday picnic is denounced from a pulpit and reported in the Register, 11 December 1911, page 7a:

Also see 12 and 13 December 1911, pages 8b and 6g:

We barmen claim to be owners of our consciences, law-abiding and as good citizens as any one who earns his living on the Sunday while preaching and inferentially traducing others. Sunday, thanks largely to the Methodist Church and others who closed public houses, sets us free to have a little of the Almighty's sunshine and fresh air...

Also see 16 and 22 December 1911, pages 11e and 9f:

Of course, the same old band of "cacklers" followed with the same old stereotyped resolutions asking for more police to bludgeon the workers into being so supremely miserable on Sundays that they shall be glad to get back to work again on the Monday... Why is the toiler always treated like some bete noir by the clerical agitators? Is it that they cannot afford to attack those who do evil in high places?

"Parks and Picnics" is in the Register, 13 December 1911, page 12e:

A recoil has taken place from the puritanic ideas which commonly prevailed a generation ago, but thoughtful people realise that the Sabbath can be happily and profitably spent, apart from church gatherings for worship, without recourse to exciting amusements... Also see Register,
25 December 1911, page 7b,
15 and 18 July 1914, pages 12d and 11i,
1 June 1921, page 4f.

"Day of Rest - Sunday Golf and Tennis Condemned" is in the Register,
6 May 1912, page 8b,
Observer,
11 May 1912, page 51a.
"Sunday Tennis" is in the Observer,
24 May 1924, page 60a,
"Sunday Observances" on
31 May 1924, page 19e:

The increasing tendency to disregard the sanctity of this day, and to treat it as though it had no great distinction from the other days of the week, is, we believe, involving our national life in very grave danger... "Sunday Play - Forbidden by SALTA" is in the Register,
21 August 1928, page 9b.
"Sunday Tennis Ban Hits Suburban Clubs" is in The News,
22 August 1935, page 6a.

"Market Gardeners and Sunday Labour" is in the Observer,
14 September 1912, page 46a.

"Sunday Picnics" is in the Register,
20 December 1912, page 5h.

"Six Days Shalt Thou Labour" - a complaint against industry intruding upon the Sabbath - appears in the Observer,
27 September 1913, page 14e,
Register,
27 September 1913, page 14e.

"Sunday Entertainments" is in the Register,
15 and 18 July 1914, pages 12d and 11i.

"'Pleasure' and Other Sunday Afternoons" is in the Register,
28 August 1915, page 8d:

To the ordinary intelligence it is difficult to understand why a man who spouts musical concord through a cornet for a charitable purpose is a Sabbath-breaker, while another man who emits political messages through his vocal apparatus, for his own advantage or otherwise, is not... "Sunday Concerts" is in the Register,
23, 25, 27 and 28 November 1916, pages 3c, 5a-9e, 7c and 7d.

"Sunday Enjoyment - Presbyterian Protest" is in the Register,
11 and 12 May 1917, pages 6g and 12e.

"Sunday Cricket" is in the Register,
8, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17 and 18 March 1920, pages 8e, 8g, 3h, 10h, 9d, 9f and 3g.
The playing of cricket on a beach on Sundays is discussed in the Observer,
2 February 1924, page 36b.

"Sunday Games" is in the Advertiser, 23 June 1921, page 10f:

Advertiser

"Sunday Sport at Wallaroo" is in the Register,
5 August 1921, page 6g; also see
3 August 1922, page 6e,
31 May 1928, page 10a.
"Sunday Games - The Wallaroo By-Law" is in the Register,
31 May 1928, page 10a,
7 June 1928, page 13c,
Observer,
9 June 1928, page 22b.

"Sunday Observance - Opposition to Sports" is in the Observer,
15 September 1921, page 21c.

"Sinful Adelaide - Sunday Sports and Gambling" is in the Register,
6 May 1925, page 9c.
Observer,
9 May 1925, page 29a.

"Games on Sunday - Should They be Permitted" is in the Advertiser,
22 August 1922, page 9c; also see
6 February 1923, page 12c.

"Beer at the Park Lands - A Sunday Cricket Match" is in the Advertiser,
2 December 1922, page 9f,
"Sunday Games on the Park Lands" is in the Register,
1 September 1923, page 13c.
"Sunday in the Park Lands" is in The News,
6 August 1937, page 4d.
Also see Place Names - Parklands.

"Trading on Sunday" is in the Advertiser,
15 August 1923, page 14h,
"Selling Petrol on Sundays" on
15 November 1923, page 11d.
"Petrol Sales on Sunday" is in the Advertiser,
17 October 1928, page 15h.
"Sunday Sale of Petrol" on
20 and 26 July 1933, pages 8d and 14e.

"Games on Sunday - A Social Danger" is in The Mail,
2 June 1923, page 2d,
"Church-Going and Games" on
20 October 1923, page 10f.

"Sunday Recreation" is commented upon in the Advertiser, 9 March 1926, page 17g:

Do ministers believe that if the free-thinkers can be bullied out of their Sunday games they will reward such meddling by coming to church?

This proposed campaign for a stricter Sunday is one of those well-meant but misguided efforts which do harm instead of good to the cause they are intended to serve.

"Sunday Sport - Is the Practice Desirable" is in the Register,
10 and 13 February 1926, pages 11e and 8f.

"Sabbath Desecration - Vigorous Protest by Methodists" is in the Register,
5 March 1926, page 10a,
Observer,
13 March 1926, page 59d.

"Youth and the Church - Dancing and Sunday Sport" is in the Register
on 19 March 1926, page 9g.

"Sunday Trading - Councils in Conference" is in the Advertiser,
15 April 1926, page 17b,
Register,
17 and 18 August 1926, pages 10d and 17c,
29 September 1926, page 8f and Unley.

"Injunction Against 5CL - A Demand From Churches" is in the Register,
21 and 22 July 1926, pages 12e and 15c.

"Sunday Amusements" is in the Register,
1 July 1927, page 11a.

"Opposition to Sports - Decision of Synod" is in the Register,
7 September 1928, page 15a,
Observer,
15 September 1928, page 21c.

A letter from Rev John Blacket on the subject of "Sunday Games" is in the Advertiser,
23 July 1928, page 15b.

"Sunday Observance - Opposition to Sports" is in the Observer,
15 September 1921, page 21c.

"Sunday Games at Port Adelaide" is in the Register,
6 November 1928, page 13f.

"The Sabbath - Made for Man - Sport Supported" is in the Register,
14 November 1928, page 8e; also see
15 November 1928, page 8e.

"Sabbath Rest" is in the Observer,
30 March 1929, page 71b.

"Sunday Amusements" is in the Advertiser,
2 March 1931, page 8d.

"Protest Against Sunday Flying" is in the Register,
31 August 1929, page 3d,
Observer,
7 September 1929, page 10d,
"Sunday Games" on
17 July 1930, page 20a.

"A Sane Sunday, or a Sombre Sabbath" is in The News,
15 July 1932, page 6e,
6 August 1932, page 4f,
"Beach Games on Sunday" on
14 December 1932, page 8f.

"Spirited Defence of Sunday Hiking" and a rebuttal appear in the Advertiser, 13 and 24 August 1932, pages 14g and 8d-10b:

Advertiser

"Sunday Sale of Petrol" is discussed in the Advertiser,
20 and 26 July 1933, pages 8d and 14e.

Under the heading "Sunday Sport" the Advertiser of 21 December 1933 at page 14e says, inter alia:

There is a danger that the last remaining barriers will be swept aside in the weekend stampede for the open air. This is a danger that must be guarded against; and changes from the old customs should be made only after due thought and with proper safeguards.

"Sunday Games Must be Right or Wrong" is in The News,
23 December 1933, page 4d,
"Sunday Sport Again Under Discussion" on
4 September 1934, page 4d,
"How a Parson Would Have You Observe Sunday" on
4 October 1934, page 10e.

"Recreation on Sundays - Move to Open Playgrounds" is in The News,
4 and 22 October 1935, pages 2g and 4c.

"Sunday Sport" is in the Advertiser,
27 and 30 May 1936, pages 22c and 24c,
6 August 1937, page 27c.

"Opinions on Sunday Sport" is in the Advertiser,
30 November 1937, page 10d,
21 December 1937, page 10d.

Also see Place Names - Munno Para and South Australia - Social Matters - Temperance and Allied Matters.

Religion - Choose again

Days of Prayer

A letter advocating "Prayers for Rain" is in the Register,
11 February 1860, page 3a; also see
19 December 1865, page 3b where Rev Lyall refers to:

Register

Advertiser

On 10 April 1886 at page 7a the Register has a call from the clergy of SA for a day of "prayer and humiliation"; Bishop Kennion is reported to have said that:

Most deeply do I recognise that there is a cause for our humiliation before Almighty God and that the present circumstances of the colony are a strong proof of it...

This remark, and other reported opinions on the cause of the economic woes of the colony, were anathema to some citizens for on 13 April 1886 at page 7f of the Register responses were printed:

I do not believe that our short harvests have any relation to special sins of the people of SA...

More than one reverend gentleman decides upon the manifold sins and wickedness of the people - parsons, of course, not being included in this category. My belief is that if all the parsons pray for our staple to rise they will pray in vain... I would strongly recommend the parsons to humiliate themselves for their own delinquencies, and if they fasted for a couple of months it would be a good thing for the colony.

Could the report of the meeting as given in the Press be read a 100 years hence the then enlightened age might well class the 19th century as one of the dark ages.
(Also see Register, 14 and 15 April 1886, pages 3h and 5e.)

[Bishop Kennion] leads us to suppose that he has been on the lookout for sometime past for a drought... to punish the people for not adopting his views as to how little children should be instructed in the love of Christianity...

A defence of Bishop Kennion is in the Register on
15 April 1886, page 7c; also see
16 April 1886 page 7f-h.
A report of several "Humiliation Services" appears on
19 April 1886, page 6d; also see
Advertiser,
10, 14, 19 and 20 July 1886, pages 5f, 5g, 7g and 3g.

"Prayers for Rain" is in the Advertiser,
30 May 1891, page 5e,
2 June 1891, page 6g,
Register,
11 and 12 November 1895, pages 6g and 6h:

If we pray at all, let us pray for good sound brains, so that we may not go back again to the good old days of witches and rainmakers.

Also see Register,
13, 14 and 16 November 1895, pages 6b-e, 6g and 4f,
Advertiser,
9 and 11 November 1895, pages 5a-6g and 6g,
9 December 1895, page 6e.

Prayers for rain are again advocated in 1897 - see Advertiser,
8 May 1897, page 4e,
Register,
8, 10, 18 and 20 May 1897, pages 4g, 5c, 6c and 6b; also see
Advertiser,
30 September 1899, page 10e,
18 November 1907, page 6e,
Register,
20 October 1927, page 13f,
27 September 1928, page 8h,
3 October 1928, page 8h,
Advertiser,
10 August 1929, page 16f.

"Rainmaking and Prayer" is in the Advertiser,
30 June 1903, page 6d.

"Prayers and Rain" is in the Observer,
14 September 1912, page 46a.

"The Nation at Prayer - A Day of Humiliation" is reported in the Register,
7 January 1918, page 7b.

Religion - Choose again