PUBLIC OPINION

Hokitika Guardian, 4 July 1931, Page 2

PUBLIC OPINION

‘‘We tend to create images or fantasies—generally, quite misleading—of our friends in our minds, and thesu images take the place of the reality,” writes the Rev. J. C. Hardwick in the “Evening News,” of London. “We see our friends not as they are, hut as they appear, distorted in the mirror of our preconceptions about them. The distoiijon may he favourable or the reverse —i.e., we may flatter or caricature our friends. But the principle is the same; our view of them is not objective, but coloured by our own desires. We wish to think of our friends in such an such, a way, and we do so—regardless of reality. But whatever the reason may be of our forming too favourable an image of our friends, the result is the same. The friend fails to fulfil expectations, and we take it as a grievance. The fellow has let us down, and we feel it as a deliberate personal affront or

injury.”

BRITAIN’S YELLOW PRESS

“In my opinion a great evil at the present time is the marketing of sensational and often imaginary stories in connection with current criminal cases. It is not in the interest of justice or public morality that the sordid details of a criminal Career should be spread abroad. Nowadays newspapers al'e read by ymtng and old alike, fthcl I would venture to appeal to the editors and proprietors of our great English newspapers and to ask them whether it is not desirable to discontinue the publication of such articles.”—Lord Sankey.

LIBERTY. “Tn a souse liberty rests on restraint. '1 be general liberty of an individual must be differentiated into ‘liberties,’ that is, rights, which define the powers he can enjoy and the claims he can make. Compulsion is rightlv used not only in maintaining rights but in balancing and defining them for the sake of a greater or more real freedom. So. ciety rightly uses compulsion in cases where universal conformity in outward act is necessary for the fulfilment of a specific purpose. In such cases the will of a recalcitrant minority, if allowed freedom, would succeed in coercing the majority. In all cases we must consider whether in putting one restraint against another we are on the whole furthering true freedom, or, on the contrary, interfering will it.’’ —The late Professor L., T. ILobhouse.

THE NEW BOXING. ‘‘During the present century there has been what is little short of a revolution in the boxing world, a revolution in personnel, in spectators, in purses, in the science of boxiilg, and in the whole .sfeiise of values connected with it,” writes Viscount Knebworth iff his introduction to ‘‘ln the DaVs of tlie Giants.” 1 ‘Boxers were one© kindly, tugged men, inclined to be slow on the feet and heavy hi hand, men who gloried in their profession and' sought its honours with pride, devotion, and enthusiasm. A boxing match between two men was a fight which anyone with an appreciation of tire pbysicial would walk a long way to attend. Id-day boxing has become a show, comparable to the cinema or the circus. Boxers are enlisted from the athletic rather than the fighting type of man. The spectators are little interested in the sport as such, but require excitement' for their money. In short, the whole snort has changed from being a simple, rugged, hardhitting, hard-living profession, to a small but enthusiastic and financial show involving thousands of pounds.”

LIFE IX BOOKS “To spend one's life between school, office, home, and ordinary social pursuits in leisure hours may leave whole tracts of life untouched. Therefore, in the modern world, reading becomes more and more necessary; not as a substitute for life and experience, but as a means of ssupplementing and extending experience. Increase of experience is among the chief pleasures that reading can provide. Almost every book that is read should mean, for the reader, one more fragrant of experience. The reader has been in contact with another personality, with other happenings, other thoughts, other points of view ; and if the book has been read wi‘h proper sympathy and attention the reader should thereafter find his understanding enlarged by that contact. To understand another's point of view does no’, involve, let it be emphasised, agreeing with that point of view. But it does mean that, however intensely one disagrees, one can yet avoid animosity or bitter feeling—which are as hurtful to oneself as to others.” — A. C. Ward.