CHRISTMAS DAY AND AMUSEMENTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19978, 21 December 1926, Page 7

CHRISTMAS DAY AND AMUSEMENTS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir.—l thank you for your correction at the foot of my letter in this morning's issue. I find I referred to Christmas Day instead of Good Friday. Good Friday, however, is counted a much more sacred day by the churches, and gives more point to my argument. The people themselves ought to have the right to do as they please. I find from official returns, that 30,000 people visited the Exhibition on Good Friday. This seems to bear out my contention, and I think many more would have visited the Exhibition had it been open on Christmas Day.—l am etc., G. L. Johnston. Dunedin, December 20. Sib, —I would like to offer one or two remarks concerning Mr Johnston’s letter. When the Exhibition was opened on Good Friday, the courts were for view, the tea rooms were open, and the band was allowed to carry on as usual. I suppose there must have been between 35,000 and 40,000 people who paid for admission. As a working man, who for many years has been a public servant, and have always worked for the interests of the public, I must state that - the members of the council, or some of them, do not consider the public at all. It has been said that picture shows and theatres have never been granted permission to open on Christmas Day. I_ think that if tho council will look back it will find that in 1919 or 1920 these places were open. I am afraid that some of our councillors think that all workers should go to church or roam the streets. If we have to bo such saints on Sundays, Christmas Day, and Good Friday, why not stop all traffic on these days and let everybody _ walk, and also stop Sunday concerts? But if the council did this it would lose too much money from the trams, buses, etc. Now that our rev. gentlemen think that everybody should be in church, I wonder they were not all up against the Exhibition opening on Good Friday,, as anybody from a child should know that Good Friday is a more sacred day than Christmas Day. All the same, the Exhibition was allowed to be opened on that day, and close on 40,000 people there. What a boom to the trams, etc.! I would also state that m England the pictures are open on seven days a week, and have- never been closed for the past 18 years. My motto is, study the working man who has a big family, and cannot take them for a holiday, and has just scraped enough to give his family a little fun on Christmas Day, which may be their only chance m the' year to go to amusements. Live and let live, as I said; cut out all traffic, and let every working man have the day with his family.—l am, etc., Fair Plat. /