PUBLIC OPINION.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 March 1927, Page 1

PUBLIC OPINION.

1927 AND BOOKS. “All things considered, 1927 looks like being aiiothw transition year, much as 1827 vfas. The old generation is going; the new lights have not yet burst forth. In 1827 Keats had been dead six years, Shelley fire, and Byron three. Wordsworth still had many yegrs before liinr, but had done all his best work. But in that same year, 1827, there was a boy at Louth Grammar School whos name was Alfred Tennyson. Another fifteen-year-old boy at Charterhouse was called "William Makepeace Thackeray. A certain Robert Browning had just'attained the age of fifteen, and still another fifteen-year-old hoy, Charles Dickens, was teaching himself shorthand with a view to becoming a newspaper reporter. .11 was, in fact, Springtime us well as Autumu. And so it m'.iy prove with 1927.”—Air John Austin in the “Weekly Dispatch.”

A YEAR. OF GREAT ANNIVERSARIES. “In the matter of those anniversaries which give tlie modern world an opportunity of reconsidering the fame of great men and, .sometimes, of paying a tribute which contemporaries withheld, 1927 will lie an interesting year, for in most'of the departments of life there is some outstanding figure whoso eminence challenges history.' “Tiio Observer” (London). PRACTICE AND PERFECTION. “if you are asked whether you believe that practice is necessary to develop the powers of the body or the mind, you will confidently reply that anyone having ordinary intelligence believes it. Have not the philosophers and great men of the past deeply impressed the fact upon mankind-' Did not J/pcke say that ‘it is practice alone that brings the powers of the mind, as well as those of the body, to their perfection?’ The enormous value of practice in attaining and maintaining skill in any art is clearly apparent to those who have experience of the time and pains given to it by the great virtuosi. Indeed, its force is so often emphasised in many directions nowadays that very few. even of the most obtuse among us, can escape knowledge of it. It is an undoubted triusm.”— “5.J.C..” in the “Schoolmaster.” WHAT OF THE STAGE? “Wherever two or more English the-atre-goers are gathered together it is the easiest of matters' to provoke a discussion between or amongst them by asking. ‘What is wrong with the stage?’ If the law of averages is operating with oven approximate fairness tlioro will be a party to answer. ‘Nothing! It never was better,’ and another to respond, ‘Everything! Tt’s the worst in the world.’ And although no amount of sophism can reconcile these contentions, it is yet true that: both answers are very nearly right.”— Mr Milton Waldnian. in the “iamdon Mercury.”

EXPERIENCE THE BEST TEACHER “To be able to select the good from the worst is better for us than to receive passively the good chosen for us. And. moreover, it was our own judgment, that we .should learn to exercise, not the judgment of the recognised authorities or of our superiors. And, further, we hud to learn to revise our judgments in the light of our own experience and not that of someone’ else. So he was disposed to conclude tout with children and with grown people alike the right- course was U> give wide access to both the good and the worse, ami to teach them not to accept our opinion, hut to cultivate their own judgment. Force them, if you like, to range as widely as possible over the good and the worse, blit let that he the only compulsion. AYas not this equally desirable in entertainment. in travel, in reading, in all the sources of information and experience that are -available to us? Give the wide choice and encourage the exercise and training of judgment.”— Sir Henry A. Miers, ex-Viee-Chan-cellor of Manchester University, in a speech reported in the “Daily ’rolegraph.”

JOHN JONES’S PICTURE. “John Jones paints a picture—one worth buying. Nothing happens. Ho paints another picture, Perhaps it’s a hotter one still, and one more than worth buying. Again nothing happens. But his Russian brother, or any artist from Paris, easily finds a fashionable following and a market in London. It is till a matter of ‘vitcli, vitcli, vitcli.’ If a British artist wants to 'be ‘discovered’ he had better disguise himself from the very outter of his career. For your modern pictures there is very little sale. The money is going on motors. Yet English art never stood so high as now. Even from no higher standard than one of investment it. would be a good tiling to “buy British.’ ’’—Sir William, Orpen. £ls FOR A “LONG TALK.” “To speak on the telephone from the Old. World to the New will shortly he within the power of anyone who can afford £ls for a three minutes’ conversation. Though it comes so long after telegraphing has been a common-place, this is yet a wonderful step. And for big business it may soon come to seem indispensable. Space yields us victory after victory. But as yet we have none over Time.” “Daily Chronicle.”