SUNDAY AMUSEMENTS

Horowhenua Chronicle, 29 April 1931, Page 8

SUNDAY AMUSEMENTS

The Rights of the People

“We cannot deny to others the freedom we claim for ourselves. What would be the best in the public interest ?” asks the British ‘Baptist Times. 1

“We suggest that all Sunday entertainments and amusments should be under the control of municipal bodies, so that there would be local option, and where the people wished for Sunday cineni is or other shows they would record their decision and got what they wanted. The matter would then be in ;he hands of the people themselves. “We agree with those 'who hold the view that Sunday entertainments which are entirely for private profit should be banned. There is need for an effective censorship of films. The present arlangcment seems to be quite optional “We arc not without hope that the present agitation on the part of the vested interests will be defeated. Theatres employ a large number of persons as well as those who come before the footlights. The dramatic profession as a whole is opposed to Sunday performances, and the trade unions representing musicians and theatrical employees take up the same attitude. There is need for vigilance lost w r c should lose what little there is left of the English Sunday. ’ ’ “The question of Sunday observance, ” writes Mr A. G. Gardiner, in the ‘Star,’ is one to which the principle of local option is peculiarly applicable. Torquay’s sense of Sabbatical propriety is not the same as Blackpool’s, and we have seen recently in the case of M. Chevalier that the public morals of Cardiff arc more severe than those of London. “In these matters there should bo room for the play of local opinion. If the city fathers of Cardiff arc too strait-laced for the people of Cardiff, the people of Cardiff may safely be left to deal with them. If, on the other hand, they reflect the feeling of the town, why should that feeling be set aside by parliamentary action? “Apart from this consideration, the course proposed offers the most immediate way out of the difficulty. And it is an immediate escape from the absurd dilemma that the public of London, and probably of many provincial cities which arc in the same case, vrgently require.”

“Parliament should find time,” asserts the Manchester Guardian, “to pass a measure as simple and non-eon-lentious as possible to clear up the muddle. Such a Bill would confer upon local authorities the power to do legally •what many of them, with general acceptance by their communities, have illegally done. “There is little likelihood that any revolutionary measure for making a rational change in the observance of Sunday would pass without a severe struggle, and for that reason, if for no other, the proposal of the West End theatre managers to legalise any and

all sorts of Sunday entertainments is not practical politics. “Local autonomy is the essential provision in any non-contentions proposal, for this is a matter in which the cathedral town and the popular seaside resort cannot be expected to agree. But a liberty which has been exercised in many places without cavil and which has incidentally been the means cf providing largo, sums for charity should be restored as quickly as possible.” There is an interview with Mr H. H. Martin, of the Lord’s Day Observance Society, in the ‘Record,’ in which Mr Martin States: —

“The Stage Guild has recently sent a letter full of warm appreciation of our Sunday-closing fight. This represents that great crowd of theatrical employees of all grades who know all too well the grave results Avhich would follow even the first steps of a loosening of present Sunday observation laws. It has struck me as a strange oversight that those who are agitating for a compromise on the Sunday question, appear completely to overlook these, the one group of people most immediately concerned. “We are daily receiving petition forms from every corner of Great Britain,” added Mr Martin, with reference to the national petition. “We set out to obtain a million signatures. Within a few days of launching the campaign we had received requests for 155,000 of these forms, each of which holds twenty-one signatures. Evangelical churches everywhere . are asking for uetition forms. General E. Higgins, of the Salvation Amy, has arranged for forms to be placed in every citadel and hall in Great Britain. From this source alone we are expecting 250,000 names to be collected. Methodists, Congregationalists, Baptists, and others are also in hearty co-operation. “The evidence which we are receiving from all parts of the Kingdom convinces me that when the great fight takes place on the floor of the House of Commons, the power and (he Sabbath observance opinion throughout Groat Britain will make itself manifest, . “The Press may be largely against ns. There are economic reasons which arc obvious to any student of the advertisement columns of the papers. But the great mass of the people, and especially the workers who value their own day of rest, arc opposed to a movement which they know will not ■.-top with the amusement industry, but will, if it is allowed to get on at all, spread to other industries as well.