CINEMATOGRAPH PERIL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 13091, 3 June 1913, Page 5

CINEMATOGRAPH PERIL.

JHORRORS" IN MOVING PICTURES

LONDON, April 9.. i It is satisfactory to. noto (says tho Times).-, that • public attention is now, though, somewhat tardily, directed tp. tho necessity for., better' regulation of. cirieriiatograph exhibitions, i i People who- only go to well "conducted and, fairly expensive places of amusement can have iio.idea oitha scenes presented to . the eyes of . children in the dheap shows, that now. abound in every lkrge town, or travel about from village, to village.: Films,. depicting crimesburglaries, robberies, .'suicides, and so .forth — are more powerful.. for evil than 'tlie worst .of the : .sensational literature .which is often deplored. There is a copious supply of: -'-mere horrors—jnassacres, railway accidents, mbtor car , smashes, fires on land and sea — all ''faked," and all even more-blood-curd-ling . than the realities they aro supposed tp. represent. Children feast upon, these exaggerated horrors when . they . ought to be going ,ta bed, they get homo too tired and excited to sleep, and axe unfit, for then*; school j work next day. :A" „ , ' ' A: -census takei\ one? day iri Liverpool showed,. that there -were over. 13,000 children between . .the .ages of four and 13 drinking' in these"' horrors. A greati in-^ crease in juvenile crime, noted iri Leeds and other places is 7i'aasbnably. . ascribed to vivid •representations! of violence, cruelty, and criminal <»eri "jer" prise Operat- j ing upon minds a'^* their"" most receptive and imitative stage. Per leaps' we may hope for a nobler competition in 'showing what is lovely and of good report, and in interestihg children iri'th^ endless forms , of -'human c .Tort which it is good for them to admire ; and 7 imitate.' 'But Avh pther cinematographs assist oi* not in . the educution of, children,. the public have a right to make sure that they shall I'no1 'no longer thwart the education labor for which tho' public pay So heavily. ' Olir educational ' system is .not so rich, iii the eleriierits ! that go to 'form character or cultivate ' the social graces and virtues that wo can afford «to nave the most - potent - of ' all appeals to. the eye degraded into an instrument of evil. ; ' I