DANGER OF DOLLS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 281, 17 February 1928, Page 9

DANGER OF DOLLS

“ATMOSPHERE OF ILLUSION” OLD CUSTOM INDICTED (Special to THE SUN.) CHRISTCHURCH. To-day. “We know that dolls and decoys have not only been sanctioned by the centuries, but sanctified by the universal sentiment of the race, nevertheless they may be a source of danger when, the child is assured that these things run and walk and play and sleep.” Giving his presidential address to the Methodist Conference last evening the Rev. W. J. Elliott, of Auckland, made this statement and asked: “Can it be denied that the tendency to deviate from truthful conduct is fostered by the sham-like things we substitute for the real?” . He stressed the importance of infantile training, and said that there was only a faint shade of difference between the make-believe of dolls and falsehood. “The child is nurtured to some extent in an atmosphere of illusion, and insincerity is inducted into the mind. This may seem a severe indictment of the simple customs of the ages. It is intended so to be. A radical change is essential here, and more common-sense methods required. As the atmosphere of example and general behaviour is the only thing a child can apprehend and assimilate, it should be trained from the dawn of its intelligence in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”