PICTURES ON SUNDAY

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 124, 19 February 1941, Page 9

PICTURES ON SUNDAY

Patriotic Fund Proposal

CHRISTCHURCH OPPOSED

Dominion Special Service. CHRISTCHURCH, February 18. “I consider this to be an oblique attack both on our Sunday and on the working conditions of the people entployed in the screening of pictures, said Cr. E. A. Sharp at the meeting of the Christchurch City Council last evening when a proposal to allow one picttire theatre in the city on each Sqnday evening to screen pictures for patriotic purposes was discussed. 'The council, ..i’ter a fairly long (lobate, rejected the proposal by eight votes to six. Cr. Sharp drew the attention of the council to the fact that the proposal came not from the National I’atriotic Fund Board, but from Theatre Management, Limited, Wellington, which offered to show films on Sundays to benefit patriotic work. The conditions suggested, lie said, were quite absurd. The requirement not to start before 8.30 was a sop to those who had religious objections. It would mean that the pictures would not finish before 10.30 or later. There would be a demand for transport and if the departure of the last trams was delayed it would not only throw an extra financial burden on the Tramway Board but would make further demands on the Sunday time of tramway employees. Or. 11. E. Denton said he was one of the members of the finance committee who supported the proposal. “I suggest Cr. Sharp is using the subterfuge of working conditions for something else that is on his mind,” said Cr. Denton, amid some protest from the Council table. “I am one of the fast-diminishing band of persons who do not believe that the end justifies the means,” said Cr. M. E. Lyons. “The council should be jealous of the rights of citizens and avoid doing anything which will make them work on a holiday or a holy day when it is humanly possible to do so.” He agreed that the need for patriotic funds was great, but there would always be a need for some form of charity. “I do not believe the good will of the country has sunk so low it is necessary to send people to work on Sundays in order that the men abroad and those coming back should have their just due.”