SUNDAY GOLF

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 66, 15 September 1916, Page 2

SUNDAY GOLF

A PETITION IN FAVOUR

A petition has been prepared for presentation to the City Council asking that Sunday golf be permitted on the Municipal Links. Mr. W. Whitehead, who has taken a, prominent part in this movement, states that there are more than 2100 signatures to the petition, and a great many persons who object to any publicity have expressed their sympathy with the petitioners. Referring to arguments in favour of : golf being permitted on Sunday, Mr. Whitehead states the City Council agreed, prior to the opening, to issue season" tickets for £1 Is, but afterwards said®that these were not available on Saturday ancl holidays, ■ making the concession an absurdity for working men. Golf was played on Sundays from the date the links were opened until June last without any action being taken by the council,, and hundreds t>f people, including many ladies, availed themselves of the privilege. After deputations from the Presbyterian Orphanage Committee and from persons in I'nvou!' of Sunday golf had waited on the Reserves Committee, the committee, believing; that play was prohibited- by the existing bylaws, reported that it had given instruction that the pavilion be closed on Sundays and. a copy of the bylaw be affixed on a prominent pa,rt of the building. The Mayor moved that •players on Sundays be "prosecuted, and .this was agreed to. "It is very doubtful," writes Mr. Whitehead, ""whether .the closing of the pavilion is not illegal, seeing.- that lockers therein have been rented to golfers without any reservation .whatever. Following the discovery -that the bylaw did not prohibit Sunday golf, and, play, being continued, the Mayor .moved that the Bylaws Committee *be instructed to prepare- a bylaw prohibiting tile playing of golf on the Municipal Links on Sundays. In doing so," continues Mr. Whitehead, "he said it was the duty of the. council to preserve the conventions of society. He thus sets himself up a jutlge of what the convention,.? ,of scoiety a,re, ignoring the fact that such men as Mr. Balfour,. Mr. Asquith, Mr. .Lloyd George, and hundreds of other leading citizens, indulge in recreation of one sort or another, including golf, on Sundays." It is further' contended that if the links are to fulfil the purpose, for which they were opened, enabling all classes to enjoy the game without distinction, they,must bo avail-, able. at times other than those in which a privileged class alone can use them.

"■With' a chance for play on Sundays the. undertaking would be self-support-ing, probably profit-earning. On a full Saturday as many as 120 sixpenny tickets have been issued, and a fine. Sunday .would produce an equal revenue. On the other hand, the council's proposed action will certainly leave a loss for. the ratepayer and citizen tp meet. With only, a short Saturday, afternoon nobody can learn to play the game sufficiently well to. get much enjoyment out of it; consequently the finances will suffer, through. players giving up the game. Tlie links are very congested on Saturdays, and the fact that play on Sundays was permitted would have a tendency to reduce this."- ,