GOVERNOR COGITATES

Evening Star, Issue 20585, 10 September 1930, Page 7

GOVERNOR COGITATES

THIS LAND OF CONTRASTS FULL CINEMAS—EMPTY CHURCHES [PIR UxiTBD PrXU A»»OCIITIOJf.] WELLINGTON, September 10. “ This is a land of contrasts, of wind and calm, cold and heat, love of sport and diligence in work, full cinemas and empty churches, worldliness and piety, extravagance and thrift.” These remarks were made by the Governor-General at the anniversary meeting of the Sailors’ Friend Society, over which he presided. “A short time ago,” he said, “1 entered a truly magnificent picture house somewhere in the dominion, with every luxurious appointment, every up-to-date mechanical device, full of potentialities for good and evil. The manager told me with pride that it cost a quarter of a million, and added that it was likely to prove quite a good investment. I wondered hopefully whether it would be as good an investment, both morally and otherwise, for the nation as it would be for the proprietor. Passing along the streets of Wellington on the way to the Seamen’s Institute on a peculiarly dull wet day. I tried to picture the impressions or a voung stranger seaman, possibly belonging to a foreign country, landing after a long voyage on the streets of this city, feeling a bit lonely, with it perhaps muddy underfoot and cold and drizzly overhead, and with nothing much to arrest his attention except the cinema posters, some of them cheerfully dramatic, some uninspiring but innocuous, one at least of demoralising suggestiveness. While so cogitating I passed into this building, and the contrast was truly delightful and inspiring.”