MORALS OF THE STAGE.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 December 1920, Page 11 (Supplement)

MORALS OF THE STAGE.

CHIEF JUSTICE TAKEN TO TASK. Indignation has been aroused in theatrical circles in Melbourne by the strictures passed upon the stage by the Chief Justice (Sir William Irvine) in the Divorce Court, a few days ago, when delivering judgment in a case in which the petitioner and one of the witnesses were described as actresses. In the course of his judgment, Sir William Irvine said that unfortunately the standard by which persons jtf the theatrical calling seemed to be governed was to some ex* tent different from that which governed society as a whole; and he added that the revelation of the kind of life described in the ease should, be a warning to those who had control over young girls of the dangers of a calling in which they were liable to be drawn into social cesspools. Leading members of the profession, interviewed by the Argus, gave utterance to emphatic protests against the remarks of the Chief Justice.

Mr. ,1. D. O'flara ("Lightnin"') declared tlint he was afraid "the Chief Justice has based his opinions of the stage upon a lack of intimate knowledge of its inner life. Members of the profession, 1 venture to say, entertain the same high regard for morality as people in any other walk of life; indeed, there is proportionately less immorality in the profession than in society as a whole. Police statistics show that there arc fewer convictions of theatrical people for misdemeanours and other offences against the law .than those of any other calling. Incidentally it is on record that never has nit actor or an actress boen hafl/?ed for murder. Miss Ethel Morrison says: "A more admirable class of girls than those one meets in the theatre of to-day it is impossible to find; yet because of the behaviour of a girl whose stage career is probably a matter of weeks, the whole tlientrival profession is damned. The girls in the modern theatre are girls of education, otherwise they would not be there, and most of .them come from extremely good homes. To my roind, the tone of the stage has improved immensely of recent year*. Tt is a shameful thing; that respectable men and women should 1m defamed because of the doings of one girl who styles herself an The warning uttered by -the Chief Justice is positively ridiculous. It is obvious that a girl who has the inclination to go wrong will not wait until she gets on the stage. The instinct of evil is in her, and she will sin in whatever walk of life she enters. It is nmazing to find a leader of public thought holding flfir* jtt*M* vi«w»." n