Dancing Versus Rinking

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 10, 9 July 1889, Page 3

Dancing Versus Rinking

L A philanthropist who has lately ' visited Sydney and descanted on its ; morality thus contrasts two popular methods of public amusement indul--1 ged in at night :— lt is urged by the 1 prudish that rinking should be pre- ' ferable to dancing, and this leads to r the reflection that, whatever rinking . may be m the abstract, it should re- . ceive all encouragement as a means I of drawing away young people from > the dancing saloons which have been 1 the occasion of 80 much harm in the ' past. Einking further takes place in ' reasonable hours, whereas dancing is carried on until all hours in the r morning, thus robbing its votaries of ! sleep and straining their nerves by the prolonged excitement. A rink is too public a place for any bad conduct to pass withont severest censure, and possible expulsion of the delinquents. It is impossible to obtain perfection at one step, and if the tone of public amusement is to be raised, it can only be by the substitution of lesser evils for greater, and for this reason the friends and promoters of public morality ought to give their countenance to rinking as a preferable amusement to the very fascinating but infinitely more dangerous dancing saloon.