SUNDAY CONCERTS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 430, 12 February 1909, Page 6

SUNDAY CONCERTS.

THE MAYOR AND THE PRESBYTERY. | VINDICATION OF THE COUNCIL. The first clause in the Finance Committee's report, as presented to tho City Council last evening, read:— "That in future biograph concerts be not permitted to be held, in' any building '~ in Wellington, on Sundays.", The Mayor, in moving the'adoption of the report, said that the committee had decided to take... this, step because they- had found' that tho persons concerned in the entertainments would"be working seven-days per week:It. had been pointed out to them that.- already" one. person, was .giving moving. picture. dis-j plays on .-Sundays, and the . committee: had 'come to the conclusion that it.was best:to allow-none. The matter had been brought before the public at a mjetihg'of the Presbytery,- and tlie Rev. Mr.: Kennedy'.Elliott had stated - in ' that . "establishment"—-("hear, hear")—that, he (the Mayor)' had' reflected , upon Messrs. Knox and Calvin by saying tha-j;; they played howls on Sunday. Now, he had not made a statement of ■ the- kind.' It was the newspaper that had referred to tho. fact that Calvin had gone 'somewhere and,' finding Knox playing bowls, joined him. That appeared in a newspaper article/ and was ; not a statement made by him at all. He had said, that Knox entertained his • friends : on Sunday, , that ho wrote his letters on Sunday, • that plays were licenced by ithe Presbyterian Synod or other * authority, ■ and were produced on Sundays with the sanction of the - Church government of. that. time, up to the period of John Knox's death. He did not think Mr. Kennedy Elliott'would require very much research, in order to discover that fact in history.. The institution- of • Sunday or anything else varied according to the temperament of ; the '.people, but .it.";was : a .wellknown historical fact that the strict observance of Sunday was-introduced: by Puritans at a i.later. period than that of John Knox. Mr: Kennedy Elliott, , who . had. n'ot' been ; present at the council-meeting as one of the deputation,. and who could only speak-from secondhand information, was reported to have said that the council had been impertinent to the deputation. . Councillors would agree that, except for a little irritation> be-. cause the deputation had beenfkijpt: waiting half an hour, the proceedings had "been', marked with courtesy."'. Councillors- woulduphold him: in saying- that the deputation' had been treated imost courteously. He .was sorry that Mr. Kennedy Elliott, had made: these reflections, and it was a noticeable fact that, neither Dr. Gibb nor- any of the others who had been present had made', any accu-. sation against the council in, that' respect." The present' procedure in' regard :tS. the .Sunday concerts' was that the",items were sub-' mitted to the town clerk in , the first in- - stance."" Moreover,, all items 'which' .it, was proposed to^ give, as encores had also to be submitted-'_td KimV'*ln"stead '6i . making broad : charges with .'regard to those; concerts he would 'suggest that'those persons'who objected to them should specify: the items they .complained .of. This would not be a difficult matter, "seeing' that" the" concert programmes were advertised. {Hd-need not point "out that German pastors'-took their families .to concorts'on Sunday evenings; Dean Stanley, .and Norman M'Leod 'had instituted rational. entertdinment of that-'kirid"in the Old Country. . ■ j~< ■■■„ ;/• ' - A-Councillor : It is done at Home now.' The Mayor,'continuing. said that the institution :which Dean -Stanley: had "inaugurated was still in existence. Councillor Luke, in-seconding the motion, said.that he was very pleased that the';committee had brought up the recommendation; for -portions of :the ; .Sunday concerts had resolved themselves into": biograph 'entertainments, and some of the items could not be -included'in a sacred concert.; ' , ' ■ The council adopted the. report embracing the clause in question.