The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1910. PORNIC PLAYS.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 2 August 1910, Page 2

The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1910. PORNIC PLAYS.

All ilean minded people will iliave

sympathy with the Ministers of religion who on Sun fray last, at Wellington, made their public protests against the pornic pageants that are to be shown in Wellington this week in. the guise of a play. Tho pity of it is that the chief ministers amongst

I lie prot■■cfftei.s were those who have raised similarly loud outcries, and waxed equally denunciatory, about matters and complaints which afforded less justification for public outcry than tho present necessity does. Aifc long intervals some crying evil ; s heard and seen in the land; and 't seems to us, that it is only at those times that the ''reserve" powers of mo,<al righteousness should he brought into publicity. But where are t'ney to-day? So far wo have seen nio indication of them im the public press or in the pulpit. May be they arc striving in. semi-public-ity ; but they should bo right out in the open at this juncture. For tho Rev. J .J. North and the Rev. Dr. Gibb wo have a certain degree of respecit- and admiration, realising as wo do that they are well-meaning and strong-feeling men who on every possible occasion publish tho truth that is in them. Unfortunately, though, they expend itiheir ultimate ounce of invective upon oacih succeeding theme that they deal with; every month has its' "crying evil," socalled; end when any essentially scandalous state of things is temporarily established in a community these two particularly demonstrative citizens—as tho the moutih<pieces of public protest and of tho Wellington ministry—aw minimised in regard to usefulness by their general practices and by their habitual use of superlatives. For that reason wo regret that tho protests tittered last Sunday against the pending presentation in Wellington of a notorious pornic play were not voiced by other and more reserved ministers. In Dr. Gibbs' sect we could name at least on© Wellington pastor who

could liavo "belled t-lie cat" on this occasion with greater effect than Dr. Gibb—because of that pastor's genoral aloofness from public protests, though his capacity for stirring speech and exhortation is undoubted ly great*. The unsnitablene&s of Dr. Gibb for his self-assumed post may be illustraltod by one small matter ; and that i.s the fact that in last Runday's sermon he gave great credit to one Wellington newspaper lor "its grave, stern rebuke" in having reprinted from a,n Auckland newspaper a paragraph condemnatory of the pontic play. The doctor should have noticed that this particular paragraph was followed in tiho The Evening Post bv another (dipping which minimised very considerably the paragraph t-lio doctor coin mended ; and had he possessed tlio critical faculty he would have deduced from tili is a studied managerial attempt to whet tbu public interest and to induce greater numbers of curious investigators to pay theatre admission money. By such easy methods do some newspapers earn the double reward of ministerial comivie,nda.tion and theatrical advertisement money! For ourselves—not having had the chance to accept or reject any advertisements of the questionable play in quest ion —we necessarily approach the problem of its pending presentation with a mind free from the pecuniary bias which some enemies of the newspaper press protest against '.as being the besetting sin of journalists. We will not (though we could) give instances of joi11ij ililists who have sacrificed great things I'nr t'heir convictions; hut, in passing we think it only right to say that I lie newspaper editor or manager who feels best rewarded Avlien lie has championed the cause of purity and of public interest, especially in the most, important m-alters, frequently lias to lake account on the debit side for advertisements lost and prospective pa/tron.age deleted.

In regard to llii.s play, we led lioiind to say that wo hope to see the <l;iy when such frankly pornio and meretricious presentments as this olio will bo interdicted. Tlio talk ahoui "holding the mirror up to nature" is .so much claptrap. Hecause (■(.'rt'aiu deplorable tihinirs occasionally liappo.n iu tlio world, are we to have rose-coloured and wit-bo-docko:l presontat ions of those evil occurrences played in public, by shameless or spa ltief ill ly-com pelled actors and actresses. for the benefit of soulless theatrical managements 1 hough there "are." such social crimes as the play represents, there are oilier crimes a lso, Would tih>e subsidised apologists for this play condone another which would accurately pourtray the hanging of a malefactor on tlio stage; or tlio flagellation on the stage of an oflen-dor against nameless laws which are cpu'to as necessary as the offences which they guard against are incapable of decent simulation ? Some crimes,

wneii merely acted, are innocuous, others have a very contagion about tlieni. After a. calm consideration of tlio demerits of this play (lo wln'oh we decline to give the fadveitiseiiuMit of naming it) we are compelled to add our small weight to Iho movement against it. With 'tlio recent agitation against the showing of the "Johnson-Jeffries pictures in New Zealand we. had verv small sympathy; we were of opinion further, that (he evils of the bookmaker and (he totalisator— actual as they are--wore very much exaggerated by the leadtrs in the agitation. Those are points of degree; and the unsparing (•ond-eiiinaitions voiced fortih by the Rev. J. J. North and his ministerial supporters jvoro'lmt the ovor pourings of unrestrained enthusiasm for righteousness which swayed the leaders. Now. however, file public \\e;il is threatened, bv an insidii'ous social contagion that has powers for ha nil greatly exceeding those of some other evils of whie.h a great deal more is heard. The prosent agitation is a rallying ground lor all cleau-'thinking and cleanliving men and women; tn-d.av's oc-

casion i.s a. very present time for pro clamation of the fa.t that sewer should, not only carry their own till !i but should conceal ft.