NEW THEATRES.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 558, 13 July 1909, Page 4

NEW THEATRES.

IN ALL FOUR CENTRES. • It is understood that ,tho proprietary of West's Pictures have decided on a building campaign in New Zealand, which will involve the erection of a now theatre in, each ' v bf tho four chief citieu in tho Dominion, / \\ herein permanent picture shows will bo established. The history of Wost'e Pictuies reads like a fairy tale. About seven or eight, i jcais ago. Mi. T. J. 'West, from London, ai rived in Wellington with a picture equip- \ ment and a company of' talented conceit artists, who called themselves the Bicscians. i By tho time the show reached Dunodin in readiness to start nlajiiigj tho treasury is said to have been in a sadly depleted state. But Fortune smiled—nay, beamed upon tho enterprise. - The , season was i a " boom " > ■ one, and, as luck would have it,i tho samo , measure of succese-- attended Mr. West through New Zealand. Australia followed, with Mr. Edwin Geaeh as a partner, and the proprietary never looked bark. Now fcho firm—for it is now a firm—.-includes, besides ' Mr. West, Mr.'A. H. G*e (wlio will bo'romombered as manager for Mr. P. R. Dix at the Theatre Royal here), Mr. Edwin Gcjch, \ and others with (smaller interests. What success has attended West's Pictures in Aus- t tralia can bo gathered from the fact that the firm has erected a now theatre in Rindley. I Street, Adelaide, is at the present erecting one in Melbourne, has'a long lease of tho colossal Glaeiarimn at tho Haymarket, Sydney, and has permanent shows established at Brisbane and Perth. New. Zealand, the faithful, the Stato that put the fmri on its feet, is not to bo hoe- t lectod. Mr. Goo, one of the members of tho firm, is visiting Wellington juet now, in connection with the big building Fchemo noted \ nbovo. No particulars are yet available, ae < thero aro certain negotiations pending, but it in practically certain that before 1910 breaks in on us, "West's" will h.ivea permanent home of their own in Wellington, Auckland, Christcliurch, mid Dunedin.