POSTERS AND PURITY.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18682, 4 May 1926, Page 5

POSTERS AND PURITY.

REV. J. J. NORTH IN AUCKLAND.

(PI'ECIAr, TO "the trkss.") -\liCKr,,\M), May 3. A jirnlpst a^Mhist; ceriaiu posters exhibited on huardings of the City was niiidc liy the Rev. J. J. North, In the course of his address at the Baptist Tabernacle, last evening. The speaker said that he had belonged to Auckland for two months, and Mas becoming proud of Hie City. There was one tiling 1o be thankful for, and that was the comparative cleanness of the streets of the four cities of the Dominion. ]t was a nutter of verygroat moment that, as the cities grew, the streets should be kept clcau, and free from the vice which was flaunted in some overseas cities. It was on purity, chivalry, and chastity that all lino life was built. It was good to think of the multitudes of morally clean folk who passed cheerfully down our streets to their work and play, to whom life was sweet, and who were free from sex obsession. Purity, especially of thought, was bard to get, and hard to keep, said Mr North, and it was surely a hateful thing that the hoardings of the City should be constantly suggestive. -Suggestion was a very subtle thing. To hedge the streets with suggestions of that'which destroyed home and honour, and prepared the way for a debased life, was surely a villainy. Theatre managers wanted full houses, and to secure them, they outraged art and morals by their hoardings and made difficult for many, the tight on which everything turned. It was surely time* added Mr North, that beautifying societies, art clubs, rotary clubs, and church people of all types, cleaned up the mess in the interests of decency and happiness. There had been enough provocation in the last two months to warrant action.