LATE CORRESPONDENCE. Foreign Singers.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19240, 29 November 1930, Page 9

LATE CORRESPONDENCE. Foreign Singers.

To the Editor. Dear Sir, —X should, like to comment upon the exasperating scrfcSning among the “shorts’* which constitute the first half of the "talkie” programme, of songs from comic opera sung by foreign singers in their own tongue. During the past year I have been to the "talkies only eight times, and on no fewer than five of those occasions were pieces among the “shorts” in which were songs utterly meaningless to the average person.—l am, etc., NOT A LINGUIST.

Be Confident T» tile Editor. Dear Sir, —May I compliment the " Star ” on the cheerful tone of its leading articles, particularly that of last evening in which you said: —"We need to remember again that the worst never happens.” New Zealand, like the rest of the world, is going through a difficult time, but there is nothing more certain, more absolutely certain than that the clouds will lift and prosperity return twofold to this smiling land. The main thing at present is to give the other chap a helping hand, and each do our little bit and level best to set him on his feet again. A most effective check to depression is to keep on with our normal buying, not to postpone necessary house repairs or replacements, but proceed wisely and economically with faith in the future. He who cuts down expenses with a miserly hand is simply encouraging the bogey of depression until presently he will find it overwhelming himself. There is no need for boastful optimism, but there is a call—and justification—for strong confidence. Mark my wotos, the ship is not going to sink yet awhile. —I am, etc., NEVER SAY DIE.

Spiritualism A Scourge. To the Editor. Dear Sir, —Thus saith "Materialist : "Evil, tricky. Stamp it out,” he goes on. He is evidentlv one of those who would like to see the Witchcraft Act more severely administered against our "half-crown women in a back street.’ Perhaps he would like to see them at the stake, or in the duck-pond again. "Where the vision ceases the people perish,” also the King Sauls. We are all comparatively free to sidestep any belief or creed we don’t agree with, but so many of us are trammelled with our erroneous youthful training, or having jettisoned this, we have replaced it by nothing of a spiritual nature. Some of us find that the faith that is satisfying an increasing number of scientists is satisfying us, after having tested the matter by personal experience. So progress is achieved —faith ever groping and prospecting ahead, followed by knowledge gained, accompanied by wisdom, avoiding evil by the way. Spiritualism, if it did not have its seamy side, would not be as human and as true as it is. I must decline to reply to some oi "Materialist’s” questions, but I may say that we had our Royal visitors five weeks before the Duke of York came here, and a memorable and impressive evening it was. Not being present at the “Ga-ga” seance I can’t make any common t except that often you get from a seance what you take to it—frivolity, trickery, etc. The many seances I have attended with various mediums, professional and private, have invariably been interesting and instructive, and I have known many sitters get much consolation, so I am not in favour of "stamping it out.” History tells us of many attempts to stamp out the Spirit of Truth —vide Russia to-day. Humanity is not yet spiritually strong —it is in the making—evolving—and it ever will require spirit guidance. Our business here is to "make our souls (vide Thursday’s “Star” signed article). It is my belief that an intelligent conception of psychic science helps one to do this. “I thought I would be in purgatory, and here I am speaking to you; it’s wonderful.” So often we get a message such as this, indicating that the next step is very different from what we were taught to believe. —I am, etc., PETER TROLOVE.

Too Old At Forty? To the Editor. Dear Sir, —In answer to a challenge given bv Miss M. E. Sims at Christchurch last week, Mrs C. A. Fraer, Dominion President of the National Council of Women, stated that “the cultured women of New Zealand work harder than the women of their class in any other part of the world. By the time their families are grown up and out in the world they are too old to begin outside work.” This was given as the reason why the women of this country fail to take a more active part in public affairs. I presume that in saying they work harder Mrs Fraer meant that their time and energies are taken up with domestic duties; certainly our public life shows little evidence of their taking any strenuous part in moulding it. But it is the latter part of her statement which interests me most. Is it true that our women, having reared their families, consider themselves too old to take up any work outside the home? Someone has remarked that, generally speaking, a woman should devote the first twenty years of her life to herself, preparation for life and amusement; the second to her family, and the remainder to social service. Women are admittedly much younger for their years now than ever before. Liberal education, freedom from ancient restrictions, facilities for outdoor avocations, and last, but not least, change of fashion in dress, have taken ten years off the age of the average woman. We are surrounded by slim matrons looking little older than their daughters, and debonair grandmothers who are young till they approach the allotted span. Wherever there are youth and gaiety these ladies disport themselves; frivolity attracts them as the candle does the moth and leaves them always fresh for further entertainment. Why, then, this tired feeling when activity for the welfare of the community is the aim and object? Physiology teaches that men and women develop a second creative period at forty-five or fifty years of age. To those who have lived wisely comes not mellow autumn with its sear and yellow leaf, but a return of verdant spring—a rejuvenescence of the faculties, which gives energy and promotes desire for further accomplishments. Then it is that the wealth of experi-j ence, the gain in mind-training, the gift) of acquired personality, serve one in good stead and enable one to take a worthy place in the community -with benefit to oneself and to others. If a woman of ordinary intelligence, having enjoyed reasonably good health and a modicum of other good things, feels herself at middle age unfitted for public life, it is because she has allowed her mind to he fallow so long that ft is incapable of producing constructive and critical thought, which alone is of real value in social service. Such a woman has never been “cultured” in the true sense of the word. It is not physical lassitude but mental inertia that makes a woman too old at forty to bo public-spirited.—l am, etc., M. B. SOLJAK. Auckland.