PUBLIC OPINION.

Hokitika Guardian, 2 March 1928, Page 4

PUBLIC OPINION.

“THE RISE <>F GENTILE CHRISTIANITY.” “We take l it for granted that Christianity belongs to us Gentiles, though wo know quite well in theory that it began as a .Jewish sect,” writes Principal H. AVheeler Robinson in the “British Weekly.” “Even the study ol the New Testament does not always awaken us to the intensity and cost of the stuggle through which Christianity liberated itself from the swaddling hands of Judaism. It was therefore well worth while that this particular phase of the history of our faith should be described as clearly anil fairly ms it has been done by tbe author of this book. He has, given its contents as lectures both to Christians and to Jews, a fact which helps 1 to guarantee the impartiality of tho tieatment His own wide scholarship vouches for the accuracy and completeness of its historical detail.’’

ABSURDLY EASY. “Flying is really absurdly easy—amt it is only those who fly themselves who realise this,” writes Lady Heath (Airs Eliott Lynn), the well-known airwoman, in “Air,” the new monthly devoted to aviation “Just because, of necessity, aviation is ‘in tho air,’ and aerodromes and machines in flight arc away horn towns and cities, there is a halo of mystery surrounding it. To the (initiated ‘looping the loop! is an achievement and an adventure, and the lay mind focuses itself on the moment of being upside down, while really looping is merely turning a corner, but doing it in a different dilection from the corners we are always turning on the ground, and because of the centrifugal force that keeps you in your seat-—and your map lying on your knee—in a well-done loop you simply do not realise you are going round till you touch the ‘wake’ of air you left behind you when you were going into the ‘corner." “ FORCES THAT HAVE GAINED. “The forces of assimilation have had some notable gains in 1927.” says the “Alanchester Guardian.” ‘lt is significant of our lime, for instance, that sport .should become increasingly n matter of record crowds, vast arenas and high finance. The pleasure is turned into a passion and the playing field into an amphitheatre. The racing of greyhounds with a mechanical prey has ceased to be an ingenious amusement anc! has become an industry and a social problem. Not long

ago lawn tennis was a mild and private contribution to pleasant Saturday afternoons; now it is a great and profitable public spectacle, with the professional arriving and much rumour abroad ns to the actual status of alleged amateurs. The world of entertainment becomes more and more homogeneous and authoritarian. The success of America in dictating to the world what it shall see upon the screen of picture houses has provoked legislative action in our own country, and the State whose traditional policy ir regard to the arts is to neglect them is helping the.national kiricmn because it is an industry with huge powers of mass suggestion. Tf it were a small and private tiling it would be loft to look after itself.”