CHAUTAUQUA LICENSE FEE.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 613, 4 March 1921, Page 5

CHAUTAUQUA LICENSE FEE.

(To the Eeditor.) Sir, —I will be pleased to have the hour or two of enlightenment that Mr Perkins has promised me on the discovery of my name. I have received no enlightenment from his letter other than that his roping jn of the Technical School stunt is mere camouflage. It is not a parallel and bears no connection with Chautauqua. Mr Perkins has no right to insult our Council by such expressions as that of extorting money from -and fleecing the Chautauqua Committee. I have no hesitation in repudiating the odious reflections cast upon that body of men. It is in bad taste to say the least and practically amounts to slander. Mr Perkins states the committee is prepared to spend more money for the benefit of the pubic if they think it worth while. Evidently they do not think the public worth the license fee in question or it would have been paid without so much heart burning. Mi*. Perkins, like ether writers, has omitted to inform the public that the Council gave the committee the use of public ground free of charge. As for the committee having the sympathy of the majority of the public, that is a very open question and is certainly not borne out by the public attitude towards the entertainments. As for our Council following the lead of some other councils, it is very satisfying to see that they have sufficient courage to establish a precedent which may possibly avoid grave trouble later on, for is it not logical to assume that a band of Mennonites or honkdourites, or any other sect travelling under a banner of “moral uplift” could with equal rights demand the same privileges as Chautauqua. Now for the Technical School. The story of and the fight is an old one, and the school is now an accomplished fact, thanks to the energies and foresight of a small band of men, amongst whom and most energetic was Mr Pilkington and the Rev. Mr. Dobson, Mr Perkins coming on the scene later and finishing well in the limelight. He deserves credit for the good work he has done and I am prepared to hand it to him but he must not use that as a means to insult our Council, nor to force us to cat Chautauqua oi shell out dollars because he thinks the dope is good medicine for us. —I am, etc., JOHN J. COADY, Pukekohe.