SUNDAY IN GREAT BRITAIN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21688, 5 July 1932, Page 6

SUNDAY IN GREAT BRITAIN.

The Bill which has been passed by the House of Commons to legalise kinema entertainments on Sundays is not so revolutionary as might be supposed. It was framed, primarily to terminate the strict observance of Sunday which was required in Great Britain under Acts dating back to 1625 and 1780. It is unlikely that the most conservative Sabbatarian would contend that these measures could or should be applied to the Sunday observances of the British people in 1932. Indeed, the very existence of the Acts apparently had been forgotten until an enterprising “ common informer ” promoted a prosecution which served to show that in London and ninety-six other areas the law of the land was being openly flouted by the local authorities and had been for many years in the fact that they had permitted the opening of kinemas, museums, and zoos, and the holding of public debates on Sundays. Since Sunday concerts were equally illegal, it is doubtful whether any hamlet in Great Britain could claim to have upheld the ancient law governing the observance of Sunday. The feature of the Sunday Performances Bill upon which the greatest division of opinion was shown in the debates in the House of Commons was the restriction of its. application to kinemas. Major Stanley, however, who introduced the Bill, pointed out that kinema performances on Sundays are no innovation in the large cities, and Parliament was asked merely to legalise an established practice. He agreed wholeheartedly with those who contended that the people should be encouraged to spend their Sundays quietly at home, and then proceeded to show that in the congested urban areas this ideal could not be attained. “To me, to most members of this House, the quiet Sunday at home means comfort and privacy,” he said. “ There are many to whom the Sunday at home does not mean that—it means a continuance of the terrible intimacy with overcrowded houses, the round of household drudgery, and all the drab surroundings which they see every day of their lives —and to whom a visit to the kinema means at least pleasure, warmth, colour, life. . If these people go to a kinema on a Sunday evening, I for one will not admit that Christianity condemns their action until I am sure that Christianity approves their conditions.” ‘Mr Lansbury, speaking in support of the measure, asserted that there was not a social worker, police officer, or magistrate who would wish kinemas closed on Sundays. The Bill which now goes to the House of Lords for consideration is a permissive measure, and it is on this fact that its advocates rested their case. It is, to quote Major Stanley, “ hedged in with such swingeing conditions ” that there is no possibility of the holding of any Sunday entertainment except at the desire of the individual communities in England as expressed through their local authorities. Conditions in the- populous areas of Great Britain are so different from those in the small towns and rural areas that it was argued that no fast rule should be embodied in the measure, and, as it stands, it cannot be read as permitting any fresh encroachment upon the traditional peace of the Sabbath. The fact that the opening of theatres for the presentation of stage plays is not countenanced suggests that the Bill has indeed been framed, as its champions claim, with a view to enabling the slum-dweller to obtain a little not unwholesome recreation, and not with the object of extending the indulgence of all classes in Sunday entertainments.