PUBLIC OPINION.

Patea Mail, 20 February 1882, Page 3

PUBLIC OPINION.

Contributions, Letters, Inquiries and Answers thereto, are invited on Farming. Commerce, Politics, and matters of interest to the Patea district. Names of writers need not be Printed.

SUNDAY WORK. Being called to give evidence in the Patea libel cane, I stated, at the close of rny evidence, that there was no Sunday work involved in the printing of the borough bye-laws. In cross-examination I stated no work was done by anybody on Sunday, either morning or evening ; that I did a little work on the Saturday night, and left a note informing the foreman printer. Yet this is how I am reported in a newspaper by Mr John Black, the defendant, who took notes of my evidence in Court:—

“ Cross-examined : He worked a little on this particular job on the Sunday evening, and left a note informing his foreman what he had done.”

I have to complain of this as unfair and ridiculous. Mr Black has made me appear to say the opposite of what 1 did say. My denial of a statement is turned into proof of the statement, making white appear black. By so doing he has made my evidence appear to confirm MrParry’s statement that ho knew Sunday work was involved.

I leave Mr Black to explain this mischievous error as best lie can. He has always been courteous to me, and I think he has got into this fresh difficulty by misfortune, and not intentionally.

E. Houghton.

STAGE PERFORMANCES.

Will you give me space for some comment on the late performances by children, and especially as to one aspect which it may be well not to leave unnoticed. The first thing that must have struck everyone was that the words were not to be distinguished. Thus the pieces lost much of their interest. Writers on phonetics say, that of the European tongues, English is the hardest to pronounce, and that its difficulties are greatly increased in singing.

Solo singers, especially amateurs, often lose much of the sympathy of their audience by indistinct enunciation; but this fault is much graver, when the comprehension of a plot depends on hearing the words. All who speak or sing in public would do well to attend to this muchneglected subject. Even a few carefully selected and earnestly studied exercises on the positions of the organs of speech, with the supervision of a competent person, would effect a great improvement.

Little if any attention seemed to have been paid to cultivating the qualities of the voices. They were, with one or two exceptions, harsh. Some very erroneous ideas prevail with regard to the relation of voice to the art of singing. It is simply the raw material, though found in a better state in one human being than in another ; and there is as much difference in quality between a certain voice uncultivated, and the same voice after skilled training, as between an iron implement roughly fabricated by African savages, and an exquisite Toledo blade. It is ' all-important to remember that a voice-trainer can produce quality , that best attribute of voice.

In these performances, however, the point to which especial attention should be drawn is the acting. Dramas exhibit the complex actions of men ; their passions, and the motives that cause them. But passionate love, jealousy, remorse, and despair are of course unknown to most children ; hence it is impossible for them to pourtray truly such emotions. Neither can their minds fully grasp anything worthy of the name of a plot, so as to throw such conception into their acting ; for those who study childrens’ action will know that it is seldom much involved.

But, with many inferior adult minds, children possess, often to a high degree, the faculty of imitation, which is cultivated for the gratification of those who are satisfied with such shallow art; and so well do the eye and ear perform their work of acquisition, that their voices and gestures often very nearly resemble what would be the outcome of true feeling. Yet, it is but a veneer, the outward sign of an emotion never felt: an exhibition lacking all that gives grace of action—heart. And the artistic mind, penetrating the deceit, rejects the offering with ennui, if not utter disgust. The same thing may be seen in a smaller way when unfortunate children are compelled to recite the language in which our great poetical minds have striven to give

utterance to their ideas : always a sad spectacle to thoughtful people.

Defend us from the imnatura’ exhibition of children figuring as grown people, and uttering, in a meaningless way, sentiments of which they have never dreamt. If children must act, let them act childrens’ parts. Fitness.