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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5568, 4 July 1889, Page 2

A letter was read last night beforo the Borough Council praying that public entertainments might be given iv school buildings, though the same might not bo licensed for such purposes. Tho applicant based his request on tho ground that the only ontortainments given in school buildings wore for tho benefit of a church or a Sunday school, and that tho attendance was usually email, and the expenses heavy. We quite allow that, as a rale, the entertainments referred to are rery poor and rarely attract » large audience, and that very oftou tho expenses are out of all proportion tv the receipts, but the principle of licensing

places of public amusement applies to sohoolrooms as well as to theatres. The object is to compel owners of halls to provide for the safety of those attracted within them, and no building can get a license that does not comply with the regulations. The most of our public school buildings are little better than death-traps if regarded as places of amusement; and we are not aware that they would be rendered any the safer through the proceeds of the entertainment being devoted to church purposes. The Borough Council very properly declined to grant the application.