The Wanganui Chronicle. TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 1950 A CENSOR EVALUATES

Wanganui Chronicle, 31 January 1950, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 1950 A CENSOR EVALUATES

OR. GORDON MIRAMS joins the “Chronicle” in asking whether New Zealand’s scale of values is appropriately represented by tlie proposal to pay/the Gambling- Czar more than any other official in New Zealand. Not only is the pay to be offered this Gambling Czar the highest, higher even than that of the Prime .Minister, but it does represent the standard of values of the men who put the proposal forward and carried it to the stage where it now is, that of advertising for this proposed official throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Why it should be necessary to go outside New Zealand for a gambling chief is hard to divine. It should be a matter only of accounting and organising and New Zealanders have shown their ability in these two directions sufficiently already to have established their ability beyond doubt.

The standard of values of the previous Government, however, are not necessarily those of the present Government and it will occasion no surprise if, in consequence of that difference in evaluations, a new policy is advanced concerning the control of bettingin New Zealand and the provision of betting shops and agencies in every town and village in the country. The State organisation of this vice should at least be related to the consequences of this extension of gambling- activity. Losses to employers and others due to the promotion of gambling should, where identifiable, be a charge upon the gambling organisation before any profits therefrom are distributed either to the successful gamblers or to the Government.

The topsy turvy standard of values which is reflected in the proposal that the Gambling Czar be given top salary in New Zealand is not confined to the gambling field, however; it invades other fields as well. Mr. Mirams is himself an exemplification of this unsatisfactory standard of values. Mr. Mirams established himself through the New Zealand “Listener” as a very enterprising and penetrating critic of films. His criticism was very helpful in lifting to a higher level public appreciation of film presentations and as such he fulfilled an excellent function as a public educator. But the rewards for this excellent work were such that he was pleased to accept the post of censor of films. A censor of films may be a very necessary functionary, but he is no creator; he is simply a policeman with a blue pencil and the power to use it. Whether Mr. Mirams now gets too much or too little for what he now does is not in question at the moment, but as his function is of less value as censor than as critic he should have received a much greater reward for his critical writings than he receives for his wielding of the censor’s blue pencil. True criticism is creative work, it aids both creative artist and appreciative public. Criticism requires special faculties and special abilities which are not easily come by. Mr. Mirams has as yet found no successor occupying the place which lie vacated. Why is this? The absence of adequate reward will probably have much to do with it. But Mr. Mirams, critic, preferred to lay down his pen and take up his censorship. The lesser office being for him the more attractive, it is to be assumed that it was the monetary side of the picture that proved to have the magnetic power. This should not have been in a community that had an appropriate scale of values in the artistic field. Were this lack of appreciation of true usefulness confined to the gambling vice and the criticism and censorship of films the damage done and continued might not be so very great, but the pathetic fact is that this lack of sense of values is so widespread today.

Mr. Mirains is not to be-blamed for stepping downward in his functioning. He must take the market as he finds it. No doubt he would prefer to find the rewards where the best work is to be done, but as they are not there he can only raise his voice against this lack of proper evaluation by the community when opportunity occurs and it is to his credit that he has lost no time in doing so on his return from abroad.