The Cinema Bill
It is unfortunate that the Sunday Perform (Regulation) Bill, wide!' got its second reading by a majority of 18 on April Utth, seems doomed to founder in Standing Committee as a similar Bill did a year ago. Unless the temporary Act legalizing the existing practice is renewed, not merely Sunday cinemas but Sunday con- certs, Sunday exhibitions and Sunday debates will all be illegal sunder the Act of 1780. Yet in London and some other places all these forms of entertainment have for many years been established and popular institutions, by permission of the local authorities—who were held by the courts to have exceeded their powers. It should be realized that the new Bill simply enables local authorities to do what sonic of fluent have done for years past, namely, to authorize Sunday entertainments if they are assured that there is a public demand. Their powers are carefully limited and are unlikely to be abused. If the Bill fails and the temporary Act of last year is not renewed We shall be forced back to the strict Sabbatarianisrn of George the Third's youth.
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