GOOD AND BAD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19847, 23 May 1927, Page 9

GOOD AND BAD

INFLUENCE OF THE FILM OLD DIVINE ON LIFE. The Rev. F. B. Meyer, of London, (doyen of Free Church Ministers), on the eve of his 80th birthday, said:— “Next to Divine Providence, I attribute my vitality to heredity. I come of a strong stock, and I think, too, that the careful habits of one’s own personal life have contributed to that result. At least it has not come from any effort ou my own part to conserve my energy. If a man will use different parts of his brain and faculties in more than one direction he is constantly resting* other parts of his nature.

“lam rather in despair about London. I feel that the best people in the great city are not taking a sufficient interest in its political and municipal life. Time is now spent too much on pleasure and sport, and so on. I am not pleased with the rowdiness often showu in public meetings and sometimes in the House of Commons. It is letting down public life more than we can estimate.

“The improvement in the habits of the people in regard to alcohol I attribute partly to the ‘pictures.’ Good pictures tend to lift society. They help to keep people out of public houses, and give the working man the opportunity of a throw-off which he needs as much as anybody else. But the harm that bad films have done, especially to British prestige in Eastern countries like China and India, is very serious.’’