THE "PICTURE HABIT."

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 96, 23 April 1912, Page 6

THE "PICTURE HABIT."

" A good servant and a bad master" is a saying which applies to the kinematograph camera, as: well as! to many other things. The man behind the mov-ing-picture machine is as a magician, with such powers as those attributed to the masters of enchantment in medieval romance. A rapid rustle, a glare of light, and the film projects scenes from the five seas and the five continents, history and mock-history, anything and everything describable as educational or sensational, elevating or depressing. Nightly in tens of thousands of towns the films 'are unrolled while millions of men, women, and children gaze in won derment. A waning for the "craze" waa predicted long ago, but time is proving that the fascination of the picture entertainment is increasing everywhere. During the past tvvo years three or four new picture places have been opened in Wellington, and in ( other parts of New Zealand the picture that moves and moves and moves has set its spell upon the people. Schoolmasters have noticed that the "picture habit" has gripped the children, and they aro exhorting the parents to have a care lest the kin&matograph should have a harmful effect on young minds a.t the most 1 impressionable stage of their development. Last night the subject camo up at several meetings of householders, notably at the Wellington. South School, of which the headmaster (Mr. Flux) submitted a report which parents should closely study. Mr. Flux is a man who weighs his words j it is not his habit' to address the public unless he feels that he has a message, evolved from fact, to give to the public. It is his duty to act the part of a wise parent to all tho children placed under his charge during those hours when they are at school, far from the parental eyes. This headmaster, like other headmasters, has a grave responsibility in relation, to the children. He has to attend to their mental and moral welfare, and tfie dency of the times is to add toi his responsibility on the moral side. When he notes any influence at work for evil, directly, or obstructing >the ordinary course taken lor the children's good, it is his duty to give a warning, and to do what he can <«> remove or minimise that influence. After careful observation, Mr. Flux has come to tho conclusion that parents die allowing their children to have far too much indulgence in moving pictures, in programmes- which are not specially arranged for children. "The mania tor this class of entertainment," he says, "seems to possess children and adults alike. All, especially the young, need recreation, but when it becomes> a habit it ceases to be recreation in. the true sense. ... . I am sure of this, that the picture show has rendered the work of teaching infinitely more difficult, because it has created a distaste for anything solid, and a corresponding ciaving for what is ephemeral and evanescent." What as to be the remedy ? The object of picture enterprise is, of course, to make money, and the promoters will naturally put on the pictures which, in their opinion, will draw tke largest crowds. It is usual to see pictures of the order called "instructive" included in a set, and, also some of a kind far from instructive. The "pictorial horror" is not a rarity, despite protests from thoughtful members of the public and the growing demand for some form of a censorship. Some managers *r« j

prudent, and exerciee a wise discretion, but others aro not so discriminating Parents know this well enough, and yet they do not appear to fear that the mental, moral, psychical — and, therefore, inevitably, the physical— constitution of their children can be injured, perhaps permanently impaired. Tho parental State and tho parental schoolmaster can do much for the child, but they cannot wholly take tho place of the natural parents. If the father and the mother persist in being careless and callous (rather by stupidity than design) the child will surely suffer, however liHrd the schoolmaster may toil to atone for parental neglect and weakness. If the. father allows the boy to be father to the man, the boy is in a sad way of becoming a very indifferent sort of man.