The Daily News. THURSDAY, MAY 16, 1912. APPLIED ART.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 274, 16 May 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, MAY 16, 1912. APPLIED ART.

The formation of arts and crafts clubs in the centres and elsewhere is a matter for deep Art is applied to every article of daily use. Nothing that man makes grows without design and technical ability to work to design gives us everything of utility we nave. The only essential to. success in the application of art is to ensure the ardent co-operation of tradesmen who are responsible for the sad state into which some of the crafts lhave sunk in New Zealand. So many workers argue that as their very poor skill will earn them, a living to increase their skill, to take an interest in their work, to compete in j point of quality with the despised foreigner, would be mere waste of time. While "botchers" and wood-spoilers are eagerly given jobs (failing better men) bad work will be common. We have ho faith in the (success of the mere artistic theorist who believes that by gathering together a few artistic Bohemians once a month they can talk applied art into the minds of the men who produce the things we want. The people of New Zealand must be convinced tkat much of New Zealand work (apart froM the primary industries) is essentially poor, that it cannot compete with the work of the world, and that there is no general inclination anywhere in New Zealand to iwake up to the necessity of doing a job well. The ideals of an arte and crafts club which may or may not spur the general public are ambitious. It is hoped that the public may encourage the production of various works fit to live with, that annual exhibitions will be held to provide the public with a chance of seeing that the New Zealand craftsman is becoming a workman and not a "botcher," and so on. We are aware that New Zealand must depend for many decades on the primary industries of the country, and that a concentration on them will return better dividends than manufacturing industries, but sooner or later we must enter into competition with the workmen of the world. At present we are hopelessly behind because we despise a good job when a shoddy one will do, and we persistently show our despite for the New Zealand article by buying from the foreigner. Art in all its intricate branches is indissolubly bound up with commercial production. It is only by creating a national sentiment for perfection of craftsmanship that we can hope to make New Zealand a land that can rival other lands in the production of goods. But the most difficult task is to convert a section of the workers to the idea that skill in work is noble and that poor work is obtaining wages under false pretences. To spur I the workman's emulative spirit is a task | of immense difficulty in these days when greater interest is taken in ;the politics

of labor than in its application. If craftsmen were devoted to their crafts as much as they are to their organisations, industrial peace would flow like a river. The man who loves his job and knows it will not only in .the long run get its worth, but he will placate the waning cli'inents that handicap industrial progress.