SUNDAY ENTERTAINMENTS

Taranaki Daily News, 23 July 1931, Page 5

SUNDAY ENTERTAINMENTS

PROSECUTION AT AUCKLAND THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY SUED CITY COUNCIL WINS CASE By Telaeraph,—Pre** AmociationAuckland, July 23. Judgment was given to-day in the Auckland City Council's favour in the test ease to determine whether certain Sunday gatherings in theatres are legal. A. D. Wylie, secretary of the Auckland Theosophical Society, was fined £6 and costs for a breach of section 309 of the Municipal Corporations Aet, which provides that no concert or entertainment may be held on Sunday, Good Friday, or Christinas Day, except with the permission of the council. The magistrate, Mr. McKean, said the mere statement by the promoter that the main item of interest in the three hours’ entertainment was a lecture occupying 30 minutes was not in itself sufficient to fix the real nature of the proceedings. The fact that instruction was given did not prevent what would, otherwise be an amusement from coming within the definition of bntertainmeut. The magistrate concluded by saying he was not concerned with the question of permitting Sunday night entertainments. He was satisfied that there had been a breach of the law and that it was not committed in ignorance.