SUNDAY CONCERTS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 139, 11 December 1908, Page 2

SUNDAY CONCERTS.

OPPOSITION BY THE COUNCIL OF CHURCHES. A LIST OF REASONS. ' Next Thursday evening a deputation from the Wellington Council of the Evangelical Churches will interview tho City Council "in relation to the con-stantly-recurring Sunday concerts in the Town Hall." A member of the clerical council has supplied the following summary of the churches' attitude :— (1) The quiet Sunday is a recognised British custom, and is appreciated by both the religious and non-ieligious sections of the community. (2) Public entertainments^ which threaten tbis custom, have become common in Wellington. (3) In none of the other cities of the Dominion are they common, and they did not prevail in Wellington till a Town Hall was built. (4) The policy of those who manage the public halls of the cities (the Opera • House in particular) has- been to disccurage th«ir use on Sunday a. (5) The Town Hall, being the properly of the citizens, rhould not be used to violate the custom of the city and of tho nation. The Town Halls of England- and the great Town Halls of Australia are, not so used. To use them to antagonise the churches of the city and the customs pf the British people is to seriously misuse- them. (6) The Town Hall offers facilities to local promoters of Sunday concerts which are denied to those who desire to use tho building for" worship or for social reform questions on that day. The Professional j Orchestra Company gets- it "for £8 8s; but £12 12s was charged to churches on the few occasions when they have used the hall. (7) These concerts cannot be differentiated in their moral value and sac-redness from many theatrical representations. (8) The claim of the staff for Sunday rest should also indicate the propriety of removing inducements to the Sunday use of the hall. (9) The band recitals under council auspices are given on Sunday afternoons at hours when they do not collide with church sei vices. Sunday concerts are a direct collision with the churches, and seriously impair their work.