NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23161, 6 October 1938, Page 12

NOTES AND COMMENTS

SCIENCE AND THE SPIRIT ■ "Modern science has swung a good way from the ,-blind materialism' of; earlier days," said I)r. Frederick Philby in a ' recexi t address.' ' 'lts greater —• and therefore ; humbler—followers still admit that there is much beyond their realm and ken, much that belongs to the sphere of a divine'activity, a region wWe ' the' profoundest thoughts pt Science 'and of pure philosophy blend with the deeper things of theology in a reverent silence before the mysteries of the infinite. No! Modern science, 'whose foundations,' to quote the words of one of its leading exponents, 'are still closed for repairs and rebuilding,' would much prefer not to interfere in matters of faith."

40-HOUR WEEK MODIFIED France's Prime Minister has pointed with telling effect to the hours worked by the people of totalitarian States," and he laid expressive emphasis on the fact that even in those countries which had democratic or collectivist Governments there had been no desire to follow the lead given by France, said the Irish Times in comment on M. D a l & " dier's decrees modifying the 40-liour week. When one's next-door neighbours devote all their days, with energetic flnthusiasm, to preparations for war, it is difficult to continue taking sun-baths in the garden. Yet that is precisely what France, has been doing during the past two years. 'People in the houses of the European terrace are under conscript terms in peacetime, obeying the strictest military orders, tightening their belts so that food may be conserved and trade restricted. A single bouse in the terrace cannot continue indefinitely to retain its high standard of living and at the same time reduce its contribution to the national pool.

THE GOLD TIME HAS SIFTED "We can educate men with books on gardening, poultry, carpentry or mechanical dentistry, machine-tools, design, television, as well as with books on what happens in 'Hamlet,' the correspondence of Hitlerism to Leninism or surrealism," said Mr. W. C. Berwick Sayers, chief librarian of Croydon, in a speech at the English summer school for librarians. "All things are of importance. to the people who are intern ested in them, and the librarian's business is to be interested in people first, and, as a librarian, in books only as those serve the needs of people. I am sure that more and better books are read to-day than in my youth, because there are far more readers. When people tell me that the classics are not read, I have only to examine my library shelves to find tho saying contradicted. The danger comes if the croaking voices of pessimism lead the librarian to remove classics from his shelves because they may not circulate as feverishly as do the 'shorts and merries' of our day. We must bo secure in our knowledge of literature so that'our stock does represent the gold which time has sifted from this crude ores of man's writing."

COUNTERING AIR BOMBING " The fantastic shifts to which air bombing may reduce civilised peoples was suggested in a serious discussion at ■ the 16th Congress of the International Federation -for Housing and Town Planning held last month in Mexico City. Underground housing, serviced by traffic systems safe from bombers, was grimly envisaged. Britain's delegates differed markedly on 1 underground housing from delegates of the United States, who —with potential bombers distant by • the breadth of the Atlantic -—insisted that more light and air should be the aim of housing. Mr. E. J. Goodacre, a British delegate, replied that safety in wartime and convenience in peacetime dictate a dual function for cities of the future Refuge for civilian populations is essential, he said, in countries that cannot ignore the threat of:, war; Many traffic problems, he added, may be solved by burrowing. Even underground dwellings were advocated, which would make use of television, ' periscopes, artificial sunlight, reconditioned air and condensed foods. The extent to which the menace of aerial bombardment, has concerned the experts was revealed in recommendations made for escaping it; These included complete underground construction .for theatres and places of amusement; for 'parking plots, railway stations) • street crossings, hospitals and museums. All 'of these would serve as refuges during an air/attack.

CHURCH AND CINEMA Pictures in art galleries carry the message of Christianity; books teach and inspire. Why not; the cinema ? asks Miss R: S. Essex; writing in the St. Martin's Review. We do not want mawkish sentimentality *nor trumpery novelette scenarios, nor the priggishness pi* the 'morality- story, nor tho pious platitudes ■ that make the screen so fatally divorced., from , real; life.-'There is room and abundance Tor i •films -of Bible history. The story of; would give wonderful material. Church, history" provides' rich and untouched ' treasure., in the'; ljvea of the' saints and martyrs. Perhaps we inicht; begin with our own British saints, Boniface, Becket, Lalid. Why! not a full-length feature film of the' history of the Church of England, a ; history that marches magnificently through the , years 4 with its saints ..and heroes, its figlit against paganism, its romance of the Bible in English, the Oxford Movement, the wjtness to-day P There could be short documentary films- of our, churches; snd cathedrala.; Some'already are in existence. An 3 why not- Christianity-'in the news? Shots of work:in the slums, in the, religious houses, in every sphere of ' social} activity .cbuld sho\v! the man in .the, sireet that tbie Church after-.'all is"notj its time.away in the past,- but? is vitally concerned with the things of; to-day. us get out of the'idea, that, good, will'and-Enthusiasm aro all'that; are needed. When the Church used thoj printing press for the first time, it, used- the, best printing .press* that it. cquUVvbiiyV When the Church translates! itir evangelistic" stories, on to the) medium, of (the, screen, .it -must- have; 'proper talent: technique arid understanding of toe* new, The cinema] story is like a sermon preached' not to; VfeSv hundreds; but to thousands ofi -potential believeri. lt \mu&t be nbt a 'drab but*' a jcoftlpfe^lisiarm'oliNothing could be more disastrous to tho cause of religion than that it- should, be commended as inferior 'art and > by a technique lower than that r&juired in the secular sphere*