THEATRICAL AMUSEMENTS AND TRADE STAGNATION.

Auckland Star, Volume VII, Issue 2046, 31 August 1876, Page 2

THEATRICAL AMUSEMENTS AND TRADE STAGNATION.

A correspondent writes in the following strain : — " Sir.—ln your issue of yesterday, "Little Nell in a new character ;"—it certainly is a novel one. A sprite of a girl, here only a few weeks, and says her employers owe her a balance of £100 for playing in Auckland, and £18 ditto in Grahamstown. It seems from this statement that play is better paid for than labour in this befooled, unfortunate city, where a hundred of halfstawed honest people cannot earn sufficient to koep body snd soul together ; where pood tradesmen this very morning, with pale faces, are walking the streets in search of even a small job to get a breakfast for their hungry children. When, as a rule, it is the young and thoughtless who can obtain the best places and pay in the city, it is these and other pptty officials that keep up playactors, and encourage them to pick the last morsel of flesh off the already bare bones of Auckland. Could not these idle creatures ho persuaded to go to honorable service ? There am plenty of placps open for girls every day. where the>y sould earn an honest living and acquire habits of industry, and eventually become honorable "useful women and men. The man that cultivates a yard of land and grows a dozen af cabbage, does more for the colony than all the vile swarms of actors that ever disgraced onr pavements with their unholy feet." Our correspondent pursues this idea at greater length, and includes in his denunciations, our importers, as "the enemies to colonial industry." We believe, and the knowledge must be a source of deep regret to everyone, that the depressed state of trade is felt very keenly by hundreds of honest and industrious men in Auckland ; but our correspondent's spleen against the stage discloses an embittered, if not a bigotted spirit. Ho is, moreover, inconsistent with himßelf. He opens by complaining that Little Nell has earned eomo hundreds of pounds in two or three weeks, and then proceeds to ask why she doesn't hire herself out for general scrubbing at as many pence as she now gains pounds a week by thn pursuit of her profession. His ideas of the " idle" nature of the theatrical life are equally vague. Our correspondent may rest assured that an actor, playing new pieces every night, or alternate nights, must go through an amount of drudgery that would Bend any ordinary labourer on strike. The theatrical profession does not necessarily involve either immorality or idleness, and an acquaintance with those who follow the business would reveal to our correspondent, quiet and respectable'peoplc, straggling as hard to maintain their families by providing amusement for the people, as he does, possibly, with mallet and screw-driver. The nature of man domanc's recreation, and the player's part may, in its way, be quite as useful and no more unholy than the tinker's or tailor's. We give prominence to ,our correspondent's views because he undoubtedly represents the crude opinions of a section of people, and it may be worth while to shew him that the narrow hoarding spirit which he condemns in the latter part of his letter, is the one practically advocated in his sweeping condemnation of the theatrical art. If everyone possessing means were to Bet his little mind wholly upon hoarding, a four roomed cottage would provide him with shelter, and mole-skin prove better wear than black cloth. But what would be the effect on the working population ? Three parts of mankind live on the luxuries and pleasures of the other fourth Does our correspondent suppose that the money spent at theatres goes into some mysterious long-stocking, instead of fir 'r ,' its way into circulation through the 'ivdinarv channels of trade? Who received the £10.000 spent in the erection of the new theatre? What becomes of the bulk of the £300 or £400 & week expended by Mr Simonsen to produce opera as it is presented nightly for the entertainment of those whose means 9nable them to enjoy it ? Or who benefits by the circulation of money in cabs and extra dresses? It would be easy te shew that many of the class sweepingly condemned by our correspondent have taken away less than they brought into the city, although during their stay they were instrumental in setting a large amount of coin in circulation. Nine out of every ten members of a stock company spend their wages in butchers', and bakers', and tailors' bills, much the same as onr correspondent spends his, and find very little over on Saturday < night. Only wandering "Stars " or companies ever drain the place, and the brevity of their engagements, together with lost of travelling, reduce the apparently extraordinary remuneration which has excited our correspondent's surprise. It is probably more difficult to find an actor who has waxed rich from the proceeds of his labour than to discover the same phenomenon Lin any other business.