SUNDAY AMUSEMENTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume C, Issue 11751, 1 December 1898, Page 4

SUNDAY AMUSEMENTS.

The decision of the London County Council to prohibit Sunday concerts for private gain has probably evoked a ■ good deal of adverse criticism. Y e think ourselves, however, that the Council has taken a very proper step in making a distinction between voluntary and commercial enterprise in providing amusement for the masses. That many people will he deprived of a great pleasure and of a great educational influence, we freely admit. The best talent is seldom obtainable for performances of the voluntary kind, and many of the thousands of people who attend some of the big Sunday concerts in London have few other opportunities of gratifying their musical taste. But ws presume that the Council intends to provide same substitute for these popular entertainments. It is now some time since band music was first provided in the parks in London on Sunday afternoons, and we believe that the Council has had no reason to regret that undertaking. The arrangcau-nt of concerts quite equal to there now prohibited would present no great difficulty to so enterprising and progressive a body- Saturday concerts have been given in two of the municipal halls in Glasgow since 1893, and these have been a financial success, although the charge for admission has never exceeded threepence. A free concert, therefore, would be a mere bagatelle to such a corporation as that .of London. Ncwcastle>-on-Tyne has conducted municipal concerts on Saturdays ever since 1882, and whilst charging a merely nominal sum for admission, has been able to devote a considerable balance to the provision of band performances in the parks. Weekly municipal concerts in 1 London might easily be made to pay for free Sunday entertainments, but we think the Council has done quite right in prohibiting these perfonnandes for private gain. We prevent the sale of all goods on Sundays, and the performance of all works save such as are absolutely necessary, in order to insure one full and free day ,of rest for our workers, and whilst we prohibit nil other means of profit making on that one day we should also prohibit the making of profit out of the people’s pleasure.