SUNDAY CINEMAS BANNED

Taranaki Daily News, 6 December 1930, Page 9

SUNDAY CINEMAS BANNED

£150,000 LOSS TO CHARITY SWSATKWAL JUDGMENT GIVESCASE DECIDED ON ACT OF 1780. By Telegraph—Press Assn. —CopyrightRec. 8.30 p.m. London, Dec. 5. Thb matter of Sunday cinemas has been thrown into the melting pot by a sensational verdict of -the King’s Bench in an action against the London. County Council.* For twenty years the council has permitted cinemas to open on Sunday if the profits are given to charities, but the judges have now decided that the council has been usurping the court’s jurisdiction as the performances are expressly forbidden under the Sunday Observance Act of 1780. As Mr. Justice Swift said, the council’s claim was all “bunkum.” The action was due to theatrical man? agers who object to discrimination in favour of cinemas. The judgment threatens charities with a loss of £150,000 annually contributed as a result of the cinemas’ Sunday opening. TJie Lord’s Day Observance Society is delighted with the judgment. Theatre proprietors hope the outcome will be the introduction into Parliament of a Bill permitting general Sunday entertainments.