The Pictures.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume XI, Issue 3, 1 September 1920, Page 309

The Pictures.

The following ■■'extract from the correspondence column of ( -- the " Tribune over the signature of "H. 0. Lee'- deserves quotation as the opinion of ; a layman on this subject. It is sufficiently forcible and needs no comment :— '•"'• ' .

"The picture theatre is no place for^children of [.an observant age, as some of the pictures at present so popular, are 'not fit for human consumption. ■ /We are. getting the ..de- •■'. ptaved American pagan ideas of the 17th tate authors ; and '.■-•playwrights r dished up' to us as ideals and gospel. I do hot poseiis a moralist, but I defy anyone^ whatever his or her pri-vaifi-T faults, to say that the disguised sexual filth, the matrimonial complications, the' illegitimacy tangles, Hhe divorces, the heroised home "breakers, 4 the uhf aithfui wife, the explpits of the successful evil-doer and the scenes of blood-curdling murders arid sui- - cidesare subjects of' either enlightenment or true recreation for adults or anything better than moral ruinittioa. for the children. The producers say .'the public like that sort of; thing.' ' A portion, of the- public unfortunately does, but why should our pictures ■ and literature be demoralised to eater for the depraved appetites of -tnose of inferior intellectuality. It is time a definite^^ stand Was taken and this picture menace removed." /