PICTURES AND MORALS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1117, 3 May 1911, Page 4

PICTURES AND MORALS.

ME. J. FULLER REPLIES TO REV. J. J> NORTH. / (By Tcleeraph.-SDCcial Correspondent.! Auckland, May 2. At tho King's Theatre last nifcflit, Mr, John Fuller replied to the criiici&mp passed by the Rev. J. J. North at Christchurch, concerning the need of a censor cf kinemalograph films to guarantee that nothing of on objectionable nature should be presented at picture shows. Mr. North said that when he was in Palmerstaii North he was informed that a municipal officer there inspected the films used in the Municipal Theatre, and had to reject large number? sent out from the Old Country. Mr. Fuller said that for twelve months his firm had supplied the programmes for tho Municipal Theatre in Palmurston North, and durini; each week only enough pictures were sent to be sufficient to complete the programme, and none had been thrown out. They did not want a censor, and if tho pictures were bad the public would stay away. A resolution was unanimously pns;ed by the audience to tho following effect :—

"That on no occasion have the many thousands of patrons who have visited the King's Theatre ever witnessed a picture that could be taken exception to by any class, or one cf a character injurious from a moral standpoint." \ Palmerston North, May 2. With reference to the statement bythe Rev. J. J. North seut by the Presa Association from Christclnirch that a municipal officer inspected tho films used in the municipal picture show, and had to reject large numbers sent from the Old Country, and that this justifies the censorship of pictures, there is considerable indignation en the part of the two private picture shews here. The fact is there is no such municipal officer, and no such "rejections as Mr. North states.