ABORIGINAL MIMICS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19156, 12 November 1927, Page 13

ABORIGINAL MIMICS.

EFFECT OF MOTION PICTURES. "TOM MIX STUNTS." (W.OM OUR Off it COBRB3PO.VnE.NT.)

SYDNEY, October 28. Much interesting evidence concerning the effect of motion pictures on the population of Australia has been given before a Federal Royal Commission which has been enquiring into the film industry in "this country, but probably none has been more thought-provoking than that given recently by Mr J. T. Beckett, a former Chief Inspector of Aborigines. [ "After haying seen Tom Mix shooting up towns on horseback," said Mr Beckett, "my awn aboriginal 'boys,' when out hunting horses, tried to take out revolvers unknown to me and tear about the bush bareback, emulating him. by shooting up kangaroos and emus, and shooting into the air when no better targets offered. I have closely studied the effect of the cinema | on the minds of primitive people, such as the natives of Australia and New Guinea, and have come to the conclusion that it is, on the whole, detrimental. It could, however, be ma"de a. power for uplift." Mr Beckett said that what was not natural was not easily understood by the aborigine. When he was able to form a reasonable idea of what pictures were, he concluded they must be a true rendition of what the white man did. He saw in pictures white men and white women robbing, murdering, warring, lying, getting drunk, and committing every sin and crime possible, without being punished for It. Films rarely showed the punishment. They only inferred it, and the aborigine wondered why what was wrong for him to do should not be wrong for the white man. Generally speaking, it was the cheaper pictures, many of which portrayed sordid criminal and indelicate incidents that found their way to the back country settlements where aborigines were located. Mr Beckett said that he knew many instances where natives had committed offences that had been suggested by the pictures. The Australian native was seldom or never salacious, and films did not therefore send him astray in that direction. "He gets bored by love scenes," Mr Beckett added, "but they teach him to be cheeky, to get drunk, and to steal. My opinion is that aborigines should not be allowed to see anv pictures other than those specially selected for them. They Bhould be comics or clean informative films, without any sex appeal or doubtful action."