CARNIVAL QUEENS.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 November 1915, Page 6

CARNIVAL QUEENS.

To the Editor. Sir, —Your correspondent "Civis," in his long screed attacking the Rev. A. H. Colvile, goes completely off the marl;. Had he heard the sennon in question he would have known that Mr. Colvile said not a word in condemnation of the carnival queen candidates, who are all ladies of the highest repute. What he attacked, and rightly so, was the spirit that has brought these carnivals into existence, the spirit which, knowing the necessity for liberal giving, refuses to give, or gives grudgingly, unless for the gift he gets something in exchange, a ticket for a lottery, a seat at a concert or the right of voting for a particular queen. Incidentally, he deplored the fact that harmless as such a queen competiton mignt ue, it had become de: graded through the spirit of emulation which the contest has excited, and that as a consequence girls carried away by excitement have descended to methods which are deplorable, and which they themselves will in their calmer moments regret. llr. Colvile lias in no way exaggerated the matter. Girls do accost men, and submit to familiarities from tile baser sort which, in normal times, they would resent strongly. They do enter hotel bars, and their appearance and physical proportions are freely discussed by the loungers therein flftcse tilings T have seen and heard. For this the candidates are not to blame, and the girls themselves only slightly so. It is the so-called carnival spirit that is to blame, the spirit that says, 'No excitement, no money,' and to which spirit both the queen candidates and the girls have been sacrificed. One queen candidate, at least, now tliat she has seen how the matter has worked out, is heartily sorry she ever lent her name to it. I know this because she told me so, but once being in she cannot now back out.

Of the pergonal abuse of Mr. Colvile in which "Civis" indulges I take no notice. Probably "Civis" himself is sorry he wrote it, now that ho lias seen it in cold print, and in any case it lias nothing to do.with the subject under discussion. —I am, etc., C.E.B.