ARTS TO THE RESCUE

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 4 May 1935, Page 11

ARTS TO THE RESCUE

Government Makes Various Uses of Talent

« T HE Arts to the Rescue of Government” was* the title of an address given by Sir Stephen Tallents at the Manchester regional branch oi the Institute of Public Administration.

With artistic quality a double effect is got from publicity. “At the moment one of the bestknown woman ai-tists in the country is devising a satirical poster for us. One cannot expect the Post Office staff to give ‘back-chat—they should not give ‘back-eliat’ except on a proper occasion— but Ido not see why tho much-decried clerk at the counter should not be reinforced by a cartoon of the public, in the most foolish forms of its activity, at his or her back. This artist is trying the experiment of showing the extreme discomfort of posting too Into at a crowded counter.

“Sir Stephen Tallents said,”' reports the “Manchester Guardian” that whereas in old days government was mainly restrictive, it has today taken on a different function and is entering into tho lives of the people in a fashion quite novel twenty years ago. With a bigger and better-in structed electorate new ways in which the Government can speak to the people arc needed. That is one reason ally publicity has come in the Post Office and is surely going in other Government quarters to play a bigger role than it has ever played before.

1 “I do not believe that Government !on .the scale in which it is now cal- ' led upon to interfere in the life of tho people can carry on unless it adapts itself properly to interpret its purposes and activities in terms that the people can understand and, broadly speaking, that means artistic terms.” ■ - -

“Tlie arts of letter-writing and the arts of good manners are among tho minor but not the less important arts. lIIIUIIHMIUUIHIMMIMUUMMIMMMIMimmiMimMIMIIMUIMM,