THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1881. SUNDAY CONCERTS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2170, 8 February 1881, Page 2

THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1881. SUNDAY CONCERTS.

We fancy that the majority of ratepayers will not endorse the action of the Council last night, when it sanctioned the refusal by the Mayor of an application for a license to hold a sacred concert on Sunday. We are indeed quite at a loss to understand the reasoning by which the refusal was arrived at. As Mr. Hulbert stated, it must be acknowledged that the performance in question would have been of an elevating character, and apparently the sole ground on which the action of the Mayor was based was that people paid for admission, or that it was a species of trading speculation. Now wo cannot see that it has anything whatsoever to do with the Council whether the givers of a sacred concert lose or gain by the transaction. What the Council originally proposed to do was to take care that the theatre should not be used for purposes calculated to injure public morality, or shock public decency. If the Council are foolish enough to imagine that all gatherings where no payment is demanded are of a delectable order, and all those where a charge for admission is asked are of a contrary nature, all we can say is that, some day or other, they will have their eyes very considerably opened. The love of gain is not the sole motive in this world. The love of notoriety frequently runs it very hard, and meetings held under the cloak *

of religion, and thrown open without charge to the public, frequently contain in them much that is most detrimental. Besides, do the Council imagine that the public are at all likely to hear the highest type of sacred music performed by trained artists without paying for it ? The workman is, in this respect, as worthy of his hire as in any other line. Do our clergymen preach for nothing ? Do our choir-masters train their respective choirs for nothing ? Do the Council imagine that such people live solely on the approbation of a peaceful conscience P Have none of the Council over paid pew rents ? It is difficult to see the difference between paying so much at the door and paying so much per quarter or year for the use of a private seat in a church. The good that is done to a person is not measured by an inverse ratio on the amount ho pays. The Council have entirely mistaken the position, and, although the Mayor, no doubt, meant well when he refused the request, wo trust that on a future occasion, if an application of a similar nature is made, he will reconsider his determination. The question of gain and loss is entirely outside of what the Council have to think of. It is possible that a sacred concert might be given, although the promoter saw clearly that his gains would be very small, or positively nil. The Mayor has no right to judge of motives, ho has to deal with facts. If a performance tends to elevate the public taste and heighten the sense of religion among the citizens, then by all moans lot it take place, whether the charges be a penny, or a shilling, or half-a-crown, or nothing at all.

DRAINAGE IN THE SUBURBS. It is a good thing that prominent atton tion is being drawn to a question of vital importance to tho residents in Christchurch and neighborhood. Mr. Hobbs, at the meeting of the Board of Health yesterday, brought under the notice of the Board a letter written by a Mr. Jackson, of Papanui. This gentleman stated that he had lived seven years in one house in Papanui, during which time he had had five cases of low fever in his family, and that ho had, at the time of writing tho letter, another child ill with it. He had done all in his power to draw the attention of tho Road and Drainage Boards, and also the Board of Health, to the disgraceful state of the drains within a few yards of his doors, but no notice had been taken of his complaint. Mr. Hobbs, with a view of exonerating the Drainage Board, showed how it had offered to give arterial drainage to Papanui if the Road Board would aid them in laying side channels, and ho thought it a crying shame that the Avon Road Board should so persistently neglect what was its plain duty. Every season, he said, there were deaths solely and simply by tho refusal of the Road Board to do what was its duty. The case in question opens out the broad question as to the sanitary condition of our suburbs. That condition, it is conceded by all, is of the most unsatisfactory nature. While in the city of Christchurch and in the borough of Sydenham means are taken for the preservation of the public health, how do Papanui, Avonville, and tho numerous other small centres of population fare ? The medical officer of the Board of Health is an jtenergeiic individual—according to Mr. Wallace, too energetic and he flies about suspicious-looking purlieus with a fiery determination to set everything straight. But the existing system is utterly rotten. Either the more populous and adjacent suburbs should be included in the municipality or the Road Boards should recognise their obligations. The small townships around Christchurch are at present in a sort of no-man’s land. Stagnant water, dreadful smells, and all sorts of abominations are rife in them. Such householders as have a loving for dirt laugh to scorn all attempts to make them clean. They are perfectly safe in their filthy condition. The offer of the Drainage Board appears on the face of it to be a liberal one, but the Road Board is perfectly oblivious to its duty. It is high time that some alterations were made. It is for the residents in these localities to arouse themselves. Their apathy up to the present must always have struck those who have thought anything at all about the subject with surprise. A sacred fear of municipal rates appear to be their leading motive power. Their own health, and that of their children, seem to be quite secondary considerations. We hope, that now public attention has been called to the matter, it will be discussed broadly, and with a full determination that tho present state of affairs must be put an end to. CLUB BEER. A curious case came before the Rochdale Magistrates a short time back, which possesses a special importance, because, up to the present, there appears to have been no authoritative pronouncement on the legal question involved. The case is thus quoted by a contemporary ;—“ The manager of a Working Men’s Club was charged with selling beer to tho wife of a member for consumption off the Club premises. The defendant had no magistrates’ license to sell beer, the sale to members being carried on under Club ' rules which had received the sanction of 1 the Excise authorities. The police considered such out-door sale illegal, and hence this prosecution. The magistrates asked tho opinion of their clerk on the subject, and that gentleman replied that there was no law bearing upon the point raised. It was admitted that the beer was to be consumed by a member of the Club, and he did not think it wrong for a member to carry beer away to consume it in his own house. The magistrates seem to have inferred from this that what a member might do by himsnlf in this respect he might do by his wife, and they dismissed the case.” Tho licensed victuallers, it is stated, were by no means delighted with the decision, and we can well imagine that The question of disposing of spirituous or malt liquors in Clubs generally is not, so simple as at first sight might appear. In Wellington, in particular, much illfeeling has at times been exhibited with regard to the manner in which the Working Men’s Club have carried on their business. On Sundays, in particular, tho number of “ friends ” that were taken into the premises by members, with a view of quenching their noble thirst, was excessively largo, and the hotel-keepers complained that, while they were strictly bound down—or, at all events, were supposed to bo strictly bound down—by the law, the proprietors of the Club had it pretty much their own way. But, if beer can be carried out and consumed, not only by the member, but by his wife—and why not

by his sisters and his cousins and his aunts? —the affair becomes still harder on the licensed victualler.