FAIR CRITICISM.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1517, 27 December 1878, Page 3

FAIR CRITICISM.

To the Editor of the Globe. SIE, —Will you allow me to congratulate you on the determined stand you—with your contemporary the “Press”—have taken to protect the interests of your readers in (ho matter of public amusements. 1 hold that recreation is as essential to health as exercise and food, and although in this I differ from many of my fellow citizens, I contend that no more rational mode of spending a pleasant evening cm be devised than witnessing a really good dramatic or musical entertainment. Unfortunately for the gratification of my particular taste in this, ti e New Z aland stage is bo completely blocked by inferior compnies of itinerant players that go- d performances are very rare, while the fact that tbc colonial p-e?s lends itself indiscrimina'ely to all who advertise renders ir, an expensive and unpleasant task to discover the good from the bad. It is a pitiable 1 sight to see a theatrical company prostitute their talents in an attempt to pervert the public taste, and it certainly tends to lower “the fourth estate of the realm” in public opinion when reporters are found ready to praise vulgarity and incapacity in precisely the good set terms that should only be used iii the notice of merit and ability. This system of critieuing good and bud alike is unjust to the public, whom it tends to rob by

the inducement it offers to them to pay for their admission to the puffed performance ; and to members of the theatrical profession who really possess talent, and by long and painful study have acquired the art of pleasing an audience. To the latter it must indeed be galling to read their performance criticised in precisely the same words as that used to describe the antics of some illiterate buffoons, whose sole qualifications for the stage are has d upon their inability to do anything else with credit or profit to themselves. In undertaking the ta-k of effecting a muen-needed alteration in litis state of things, you will, I am certain, have the sympathy and moral support of the respectable portion of the play-going public, and the small pecuniary lass that your outspoken criticism may entail upon you, will be more than compensated by the general support the public ever accord to an independent journal, willing to protect their interests regardless of consequences. That you are doing your duty in the stand you have taken upon the subject of theatrical companies is certain, and if you continue in the course you have entered upon, the Christchurch people will soon understand that “ Star Troupes ” who only advertise in certain papers tacitly admit their own inferiority and inability to stand the test of impartial stage criticism. Yours, &c,, PLAY-GOER.