JEFFRIES-JOHNSON PICTURES AND OTHER EVILS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 876, 23 July 1910, Page 10

JEFFRIES-JOHNSON PICTURES AND OTHER EVILS.

Sir, —I. wish to mako a few remarks in support of what "Defence" said in to-day's issue of your , paper. ' While fully appreciating the instincts- of. tho Kev. J. J. North and' a' few others of that ilk, I think the New Zealand public ought to bo allowed to chooso for itself what pictures, etc., it shall see. The-reverend gentleman before, mentioned, says that this "disgusting exhibition of brutality" will havo "a bad effect on the morals of tho younger generations,' yet pictures are exhibited in tliis city every evening which would have quite as bad au. effect on, tho aforesaid younger generation's morals, if they took so much notice of mere pictures, such for instance as the ordinary picturo drama, in which there aro always two or three murders, generally done in ■ a most revolting manner. These pictures are also, in somo cases, "suggestive," yet our young people go to see them, and uidcss they aro very young (under 3 years) thoy generally ; manage to discover points which are meant only for their elders. What is there in this "disgusting exhibition of brutality," merely an exhihitiou of the method of using man's primitive means of defence, a sport in which England has always excelled, and which lias helped to make her people what they are.

As long .is there are boys in tho world, fighting or boxing, can never dio out. Imagine two small, excited school boys, settling their differences by arbitration, with teacher for arbitrator! Of course, boxing is different from pri7/fi-fighting, but ia there any difference between pictures of a prizefight and pictures of a boxing match? Anyhow, after all, they are only pictures. It appears to mo that all this outcry about figlit pictures, totalisator, bookmakers, etc., is only the thin end of the wedge, for as soon as all these are prohibited in "God's Own Country," our religious leaders will have to find something- to petition Government about, and that will be tho end at football, and all other sports,, and inf£ear) of coing to Aihletic Paris oa

Saturday afternoon to see North y. South island, wo will all assemble in tho churches to hear an address ou "The Proper Care of Our Babes." ; think it is ...time that thoso religious agitators found out. that they _ cannot make a country 'moral by legislation. If gambliug is stopped in one form, sonlo other form will soon bo invented— the gambling instinct can never bo wholly stamped out. In about ten years henco somo or these people, apparently imagnio sin will havo been completely blotted out of our beautiful (?) country, including the pak-a-poo schools in Haining Street, and the Chinese, and everybody will be perfectly happy. Then wo will bo invaded by a Japanese fleet and wo will havo forgotten how to fight. In conclusion, 1 think that if a vote wero taken throughout New Zealand on tho question of prohibiting tho Jofr fries-Johnson pictures, thosu in favoiu of it would find themselves in a very decided minority. After seeing so many lotters to tho papers, about tho prohibition of these pictures, I should liko to see somo abler pen than mmo take up the cudgels ou behalf of freeborn New Zealanders. Of courso, tho reason for thero not being many letters in the defsnee, may be that the matter is treated by broad-minded pec pin with amused tolerance, as being merely the fad of a few bigoted parSOUS -- I!in, ' etO -FREE THINKER. Wellington, July 16, 1910.