SUNDAY LEGISLATION IN THE TRANSVAAL.
By Geo. B. Thompson
Still the agitation concerning religious legislation continues in the colony, and a bigoted clergy are persistent in their demands for a more rigorous enforcement of the laws protecting the “wild solar holiday.” But the Cape is not the only colony in which this wicked matter is receiving attention. The South African Republic has always had a Sunday law, but recently felt called upon to remodel this ecclesiastical engine of tyranny and persecution. The law as amended, now reads as follows, according to a recent issue of the Staatscourant:— “ARTICLE I. Every person guilty of desecration of the sabbath (Zondagschending) shall be punished for every contravention with a maximum fine of five pounds, or a term of imprisonment not exceeding one month, as under: (a) He who executes field or garden work on Sunday, except in cases of urgent necessity, and for maintenance of field or other fruit; (b) he who fires a gun or other firearm, unless legally or otherwise entitled to do so; (c) he who hunts wild or other animals with dog or other animals; (d) a transport rider, or the director of a transport wagon, who invades the boundaries of a village on a Sunday, or who causes such to be done. “For all the under-mentioned offenses there shall be inflicted a fine penalty not exceeding one hundred pounds (£100), or an imprisonment penalty not exceeding six months: (a) The person who sells or offers for sale on a Sunday, any goods, merchandise, cattle, or other live stock; (b) the person who keeps open a shop, warehouse, or other premises on a Sunday with intent to sell or to trade; (c) the person who works, or causes work on Sunday with steam and other machines.” This is certainly savage enough to satisfy religious intolerance for the present at least. In the days of New England Puritanism the fearless advocate of religious liberty, Roger Williams, whose locks were whitened with the frost of age, had to flee from his comfortable home amid the snows of winter and lodge with Narragansett Indians, the red man of the forest thus becoming the champion of religious freedom. So here, a rigorous Sunday law is in existence in all the colonies, and the only place—be it said with shame—where the dove of religious freedom can find a place to rest is among the savage, untutored aborigines of the “dark continent.” East London, Cape Colony.