PATER’S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3804, 8 February 1927, Page 10

PATER’S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

MOVIES AND THE READING HABIT. Some weeks ago a -visitor from Australia to our shores gave an address to the leading educationalists and others in Auckland. That gentleman was a professor and one of the highest authorities on education in Australia, so he may be allowed by a great many to know what he was talking about. He complained that the lack of good reading or the disinclination of boys and young people generally to read good books — that is, the works of good authors —wa» due to the widespread activities of the proprietors of film theatres or, as they are popularly called, the movie shows. Many years ago, when the theatres which require living actors on the stage became highly popular, many good people thought plays and play actors were doing the work of Satan, and to be an actor or an actress was to be a person whose character was of very questionable kind. All that is now past, and we know better. We know now that to be a good actor one has not only to have great artistic gifts, but also that one has to 1 study very hard even the smallest movements on the stage, and cultivate to the finest degree the inflection of words and phrases to give a living picture of the ideas that were in the author’s mind at the time when he wrote the play. The great actors of the day are almost worshipped by playgoers and all grades of society. To-day it is an honour to know them, and they are'gladly received in the houses of the most notable members and families in the highest society. Even the King recognises them, and bestows honorable titles upon them. Education has done away witlumany of our narrow-minded views, and we know tq-day that some of the best men and women are actors and actresses, and that it is not a disgrace to take to the stage, as a great many used to think. The Puritans of the Stuart period, in their narrow religious zeal, used to think it was wicked to be very jolly, to dance, and to laugh heartily. To indulge in things that were pleasant or pleasures that appealed to the great mass of the people was actually considered to be sinful. Not long ago in Scotland it was thought to be exceedingly and daringly wicked to whistle on the Sabbath and even to take long walks in the woods and dales for pleasure. Even in these times there are still some who are horrified at a boy who, because he is full of the joy of his young life and the love of Nature, whistles on Sunday. “Pater” himself, when a boy, had his cheeks soundly slapped for whistling on that day. It may have been because he was a poor whistler and his mother was very musical, but that was not the reason given;'but most probably it was due to severe and dour characteristics of the Scottish descent and upbringing of his

parents. - Thank goodness those sour ideas are posing away. New habits, when they become general and become a custom, tend to become less shocking to our views. When theatre-going first began to be very popular there were many who raised their hands in horror, and said the good morals of the people, and especially of the young, were “going to the dogs.” So we hear the same to-day about going to picture shows, and an awful lot of nonsense is talked about the bad influence this picture-going habit is having on the young. The pleasure is descried simply because it is new and very popular. When the great and good Salvation Army started its works in our midst its workers were laughed and jeered at by thoughtless people. When steam trains first started some' people thought it was wicked to ride in them because God had given men two legs with which to walk.

Nearly everyone has heard of the good lady who, when she saw in England the first steam locomotive at work pulling trucks and carriages, said the machine was the invention of the devil, and there were many others who thought the same at the time. - We are prejudiced against ■Chinamen, and the Chinese at home are prejudiced against foreigners, simply because we are new to one another, and unused to each other’s looks, habits, life, work, and ways of wearing clothes. It seems that when anything new comes along, it is a habit of ours to view it with disfavour until' we get used to it and begin to appreciate it. That is what is wrong with us in the case of picture shows. Cigarette smoking is a worse habit than the picture habit; it is worse for our lungs, throat,•'and eyes. - and much more expensive than picturegoing. People who run down pictures and say nothing against the cigarette habit are like those who see the mote in their neighbour’s eye when they have a beam in their own'

Those who say that picture shows are responsible for boys and girls not reading as they used to are following a parrot cry whir is new, because pictures are very popular and very modern. Pictures will stay because they give pleasure to many, and though, because a new thing, some pictures are not very good, they will improve. They teach a lot if studied properly, and if is just as necessary to have short comic pictures afrit is to have a pantaloon in a pantomime or a clown in a circus. Some people have learned more about other countries and other peoples and their ways and habits of life than they ever learned in 'schools or would have learned in their lives. How many of us would have seen a great battleship being launched, great regiments marching, the great guns of battleships being fired, or the great armies marching, great industries being worked, or the great natural wonders,of the wide world, had it not been for the invention of the cinematograph ? We learn more of the world and peoples in a few minutes of a picture show than we could learn in hours of reading for the same purpose., The eye is one of the great gateways for the acquirement of knowledge. Soon the day

will come when every school will have its own cinema show; then what about the effect of the moving pictures upon the habit of reading? Personally, I think the highbrow people who. run down picture shows have their intellectual noses so high in the clouds that they cannot see the heavens for the mist. A little thinking would tell them many reasons for the distaste for reading, if such a distaste is as wide as they assert, or even more general than it used to be. To-day there arc many more pleasures provided for the young, and it is good that there are. There is more sport, and the rapid carriage of trains, trams, and motors is leading to the enjoyment of outdoor life, its pleasures, and its healthfulncss. These arc distractions which take up much of the time that otherwise might be —note “might be”—given tn book reading. Again there are lots of very cheap comic papers, so called, on the market profusely illustrated and highly coloured to catch youthful eyes, and they arc bought and read by the tens of thousands. Those and twopenny or threepenny “dreadfuls” spoil the taste in some cases for good reading, and even spoil the memory and the power of the mind to ponder and to analyse. In these respects they arc much worse than picture shows.

Children will develop a taste for good reading if good books are provided and cheap trash is kept away from them. Another factor against good reading is the dearness of books since the Great War. I know grown-up people who have given up buying novels and periodicals because of the price. The only remedy now -for that state of affairs is to establish good libraries in every town, suburb, and country village, and to cultivate carefully in our schools the taste of our pupils. Teachers with a good elocutionary training, and powers to exercise it, can do a great deal in cultivating the taste of their pupils. The learning of poetry and fine oratorical passages will do. much to improve the taste for good literature if the teachers have the power and the training in reading expressively. The home life and the standard of. the, education of the parents of children has by far the most to do with the reading, taste of children and.youths; but it is not to be forgotten that some children have a thirst for knowledge, and others have not, while many require their taste to be encouraged and developed. Going to picture shows has not much to do with the spoiling of children’s love of reading. Not all children go to the pictures, even once a week, and, moreover, not necessarily is it true that those who do go give up reading. It is easy to make sweeping condemnations, and it suits, in the opinions of a certain class, to do so. Even among children pictures are not so popular as they used to be. Fashions and tastes change, and a suddenly popular craze soon dies. Pictures will hold their own for certain types of mind in all classes, but they must be changed in quality to suit the times and the demands of the public. Travelogues and topical budgets are always educative, and a good drama and good acting, with the perfection of the scenery or setting that goes with picture plays,

will always be an attraction, so there is little to be gained by railing at picture shows; they give pleasure to many, and many will always patronise them. HOW MANY BOOKS HAVE BEEN PRINTED ? Since printing was first started the number of books published in all countries of the globe seems to be about thirteen millions. France, Italy, Holland, and Germany possess altogether about 25,C00 books printed between 1436 and 1500. From this date the yearly average of books published is not over 1250 volumes. It gradually rises, but does not exceed 10,000 until 1700. In 1887 only does it reach 100,000, while during the 10 years preceding the war the average number of books published in the world reached 174,375 a year. The war caused the figures to fall, but it can be asserted that at the present date 140 times as many books are printed .in a year as were published between the years 1500 and 1536. The figures refer, of course, to individual works, not the numbers of copies of them that have been printed and published.