KINEMA UNDER FIRE.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2000, 6 March 1914, Page 8

KINEMA UNDER FIRE.

AT THE W.C.T.U, ! COARSE & SENSATIONAL FILMS. _____ (By Telegrapn.-Press Association.) Clsborne, March 5. Six years ago," said the president of the- W.C.T.U., in her address, "tho total number of employees in tho kinematograpk theatres m Great Britain was about SUO. They now exceed 125,000. Their wages will probably rim into £12,000,000 i>er annum. The number of people visiting kiiiemas per week is estimated at eight millions. _ Thero are about 15,000 picture theatres in America, patronised by moro than six million people per day. In the face of such figures who can estimate w?.P oWcr for ?? 0(1 or evil of kinemas? \\ hue I do not intend to enter into any dotailed criticism of picture shows, I should hko to ask:. 'What is tho effect of a. certain class of pictures upon the rising generation?' There is no doubt that a good deal may be learned from films which treat of the foreign world, but it is an incontestable fact that thero is another class of picture that demands most ruthless supervision. It is a class of picture that is a popular featuro at many picture shows—coarso clandestine love, scenes, sensational crimes, bushranging scenes of tho Deadwood Dick type, and murders. These are undoubtedly harmful in their' effect on tho minds,of tho young, for" they create a. most unwholesomo appetite- aJid invariably lead'to wholosomo moral decrepitude. ■ A perusal of tho daily advertisements for the kinerna will convince you that tho programmes aro largely blood-curdling and sensational, calculated to hold spellbound and, as ono advertisement recently put . it, with, enough to suit the most exacting.' It is a, matter for amazement that, with parents fully aware of this, thero should he such apparent indifference as to the- class of entertainment which their children attend. It might be well if, in New Zealand, some responsible body was created to supervise films beforo they appear in public. It could do tho managements h» liar" while it would exercise a most beneficial effect upon tho community." Another Matter Detfounced. Dealing with gambling, tho following remarks were mado in the president's address:—"As we expected, the racing fraternity ,mado another effort last session to get Parliament to pass into law a Bill increasing tho number of race days by thirty, in a country already over-snpplied, and wo are amazed that tho House could find the time to discuss such a Bill when important business, affecting the general welfare of the community, was crowded out. Aβ wo aro convinced that gambling is,inimical to the best interests.of the,people, and likely to become a social cancer unless its growth can bo stepped, we must— as our late beloved president advised us at last convention—continue to protest against any effort for lessening the restrictions on gambling, and.we must useall legitimate means to eradicate, the gambling evil from the Dominion, and to abolish the totalisator."