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Otago Daily Times, Issue 19197, 13 June 1924, Page 6

Tt is wonderful what people may gei accustomed to. The approach to tht principal theatre in Dunedin is at best very far from ideal. Visitors to the city must often have thought so any time for years past, but local residents have not complained, though some improvement might easily have been brought about And now, when the City Council has set about making, in the interests largely of vehicular 'traffic, an alteration that might have been made long since with the object of removing an eye-sore, it must needs, under the influence of some temporary aberration, contemplate a step the execution of which would only make what is bad distinctly worse. In brief the Council, impressed with the desirability of removing a public convenience from the intersection of Crawford and Jetty street' has approved of the construction of a compensating utility fairly Opposite the principal entrance of the theatre, appa rently under the strange belief that the achievement might be reckoned a “ city improvement.” This procedure has put a deputation of citizens to the trouble of interviewing the responsible Committer of the Council and making formal protest The Committee should forthwith admit the validity of the protest, and alter it plans accordingly. The selection of - suitable site for the new structure should present no gi-cat difficulty. A main consideration is that it should be dc Ujjdedly out of the line of theatre tra'^c

The scanty attendance at the annual meeting of the IHmcdiri Community Singing Committee on Tuesday docs not necessarily signify that public interest in an interesting enterprise is dead. When the “sings (to use a word which should perhaps be accepted under protest) were started, the idea hit the popular taste, and there does not seem to be any conclusive reason why the vogue should have been of merely temporary duration. The financial results have been fairly satisfactory, though they may not have been startling; and the fact that it has been possible for the promoters to allocate an appreciable gum to charitable purposes points to a feature of the movement which should appeal to public sympathy, apart from the original motive. The quality of that motive was happily expressed in the Mayor’s remark—“ These community sings cheered one along life’s weary way.’’ We trust that Mr Tapley is not unduly feeling the pressure of his indefatigable civic labours, and anyhow, wo are sure that in moments of weariness and disenchantment ho will always be able to rise to the superb optimism of his famous namesake.—but if the community “sings" help him to be “jolly under difficulties,” well, that in itself is no trivial reason why the project should bo continued. It is true that the meeting on Monday last was pervaded by a rather dubious atmosphere. Even some enthusiasts gave expression io a doubt whether there was any demand for a renewal of the co-operative songfulness. On the whole, however, the committee may reasonably take heart of grace and give at least temporary trial of the renewal of an enterprise which can hardly fail to further in some decree the cause of fraternal amity and mutual understanding.

The relations between Labour members of the House of Commons are not always faultlessly harmonious, but the domestic situation is all that could be desired, it we may take as criterion the circumstance, announced by cable, that for the second year in succession the immemorial prize of the “Dunmow Flitch” has been awarded to one of Mr Ramsay MacDonald’s Parliamentary adherents. Little Dunmow is a village in Essex, with a population _of under 400; and (to quote from a historical authority) it was ‘‘formerly the seat of a priory remarkable for the custom of presenting a flitch of bacon to any couple who could satisfy a jury of six bachelors and six maidens that they had spent the first year of married life in perfect harmony, and had never at any time wished they had tarried. The institution of this strange matrimonial prize appears to date from the reign of John; and the only instances recorded of its award occurred in 1445, 1467, 1701, 1751, and 1763. A revival of the custom was effected in 1855 by Mr Harrison Ainsworth, but the scene of the ceremony was transferred to -the Town Hall of Great Dunmow —itself only a tiny town with about 3000 inhabitants. A fairly substantial volume, entitled “History of the Dunmow Flitch of Bacon Customs.” was published in 1877. The latest prize winner, a Welsh M.P., lays his hand upon his heart an(J solemnly avers that the first year of his double-harness pilgrimage has been “so full of concord that he has never experienced the pleasure of making it up with his wife.” But, it might, not be impertinent to ask, have the two Dunmows, Great and Little, no young couples of their own with the requisite qualifications?