THE WAIKATO TIMES With which Is incorporated The Waikato Argus. FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 1930. CHANGING TIMES.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17975, 21 March 1930, Page 6

THE WAIKATO TIMES With which Is incorporated The Waikato Argus. FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 1930. CHANGING TIMES.

<». Other times, other manners. Recently it was reported that a wellknown and very popular Australian actress had voluntarily sequestrated her estate, which disclosed liabilities totalling £3OOO. The point about this particular-deficiency was that the actress had been severely hit by the “talkies." In other words, the legitimate stage appears by this example to have been thrown back upon its defences by the irresistible advance of a new and very sturdy competitor. It has been affirmed by those experienced in meeting changes of public taste that the “talkie” is merely.a temporary craze; that a swing-back, sooner or later, but certainly inevitably, will take place. On this point there may be much argument. However that may be, the present extraordinary vogue of the “talkie," with its possibilities of permanence, is a matter for reflection, it is a pathetic reminder of the inexorableness of changes in public taste that a celebrated actress should have had to drop the curtain or her career in deference to it. This is not a unique instance of a reversal of fortune due to external circumstance. It is but part of slowmoving social changes which, from one point of view, may mean progress, but from another quite conceivably may mean retrogression. Whether we praise or condemn change, we must perforce admit that it is the essence of social evolution, that, moreover, it does not represent change merely for the sake of change, but a new line of thought and effort in search of something which appears to be belter though in actual results it may not be so. The coming of the railway dispossessed old-time customs and enterprises. Inn-keepers, ostlers, coachdrivers, post-riders, breeders of hackneys, were all hard hit. The advent of the motor-car completed the rout. Where is now the village smithy, the village saddler, the still •well-rcmem-bered “livery and bait stables?” In their place is the village “bowser," the village service station, and other institutions incidental to the new methods of transport. What will happen when flying becomes popularly established, and the air is darkened by the wings of countless young -men in a hurry, is as difficult to imagine as the present appearance of things would have been to depict, say, 40 years ago. Looking back, our elders may recall such vanished vocations as indigo dyeing, snuff-box making, and the very fine art of snuff-box lid designing and painting. The passing of the ‘'windjammer” is enshrouding the old-time sea-shanty and the ancient lore of the masts, yards, and rigging, in the mists of antiquity, and with them, manifold

vocations which bred in the past a race of hardy sea-dogs. Dick Turpin nas been succeeded by the motor bandit, and the latter some day may be superseded by an outlaw from the air; the bandit may become a hawk. As the steel pen crowded out the ancient quill, so the fountain pen has seriously circumscribed the steel pen industry. Oil-lamps cut into the candle-makers' activities, and electric light superseded both. As to whether the present plight of actors and musicians is a temporary phase there may be some doubt, but at its happening there is certa niy some regret. The stage has contributed in no small measure to our literature and to that of every other country while music, which knows no other language than its own, was never intended to oe heard only as a reproduction through a loud speaker. It is probable that radio, which enables people to stay indoors and gain much cn-tMainmcnt and instruction in their own homes, has struck as severe a blow at the stage as anything else and that the coming of the talkie has only sewed to emphasise this. Meanwhile the tastes of the people change, for good or ill, but perhaps they will mange again for good.