SUNDAY CONCERTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20727, 21 November 1930, Page 13

SUNDAY CONCERTS.

PERMITS TO BE REFUSED.

SPECIAL EXCEPTIONS ONLY. CITY COUNCIL'S ACTION. ADMINISTRATION OF STATUTE. Except in special circumstances the City Council has decided to place a ban on the holding of Sunday concerts. At the previous meeting of the council a recommendation that no further permits should be granted except by the express permission of the council was referred back to the Finance Committee, but in its report last evening the committee adhered to its recommendation. Mr. T. Bloodworth moved as an amendment that the present practice should continue and that entertainment* should be permitted on Sunday evenings, provided that the programmes were approved by the town clerk. He referred to state-, ments published in a pamphlet by the Council of Christian Congregations and said that people objecting on relicious grounds forgot that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Many people who patronised Sunday concerts had no other forms of entertainment. An Act of Parliament. The amendment was seconded by Mr. E. J. Phelan, who said the committee, had dodged its responsibilities. Nothing had been said to show what was wrong with the existing system. One man and one man only should give a decision in such matters. Miss E. Melville said the matter under consideration was not the observance of the by-laws, but the administration of an Act of Parliament which said that no concert or entertainment of any kind open to the public, whether by purchase of tickets or otherwise, should be held or given on any Sunday, Good Friday or Christmas Day, without the written consent of the council, and then only subject to such conditions as the council might impose. It was not fair to ask the town clerk or a small committee to take over the whole responsibility of the council. Mr. H. P. Burton reiterated a previous remark that if the organisations holding Sunday evening entertainments would cut out pictures for one night and restrict their activities to disseminating their views, then one could see whether it was the picture or the organisation that counted. The pictures shown were not of a suitable type. Sermons a "Hardship." Mr. F. N. Bartram said Mr. Burton took up the attitude that if he objected to people doing a certain thing, the. council should prevent them from doing it. It was an absolute hardship for some people to listen to a sermon, and if the entertainments were prohibited there would be no increase in church attendances. Mr. G. W. Hutchison said the sanctity of the Sabbath was fixed by statute. The amendment could not be supported because the existing system had failed badly. Many of the organisations holding Sunday evening concerts had not applied to the council for permits. The law was being flouted, and until the council was satisfied that it could again hand the matter over to the town clerk, it should deal with the matter itself. Mr. Bloodworth's amendment was lost, and Mr. A. J. Entrican moved another amendment to the effect that the town clerk should be authorised to take proceedings against organisations which were breaking the taw. Picture theatre proprietors, he said, were working for a seven-day week. The council need not act as a censor of the people's morals or as a censor of the pictures that were shown; but the council should administer the MunicipaJ Corporations Act. " Sudden Bush of Pictures." Mr. Bloodworth seconded the amendment. If the law were being broken, he said, the town clerk should take action. The town clerk, Mr. J. S. Brigham, said the matter until recently had been quite simple. Applications had been received at intervals from bodies wishing to hold sacred concerts or entertainments for charity and no difficulties were placed in their way. Then came the sudden rush of Sunday pictures. He did not think the position could bo dealt with effectively until the council decided whether or not it would take action on a report which he would prepare upon what took place between the present time and the next council meeting. Under the Municipal Corporations Act the council could appoint one of its members to deal with the question of Sunday concerts, but not one of its officers.

Mr. Entrican's amendment was lost and the committee's recommendation was adopted.