FILM OF THE PLACEMENT SERVICE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 190, 28 August 1937, Page 10

FILM OF THE PLACEMENT SERVICE

The film, which has received the intriguing title of "Eegained Horizon," is a pieturisation of the work of tho State Placement Service^ but the main theme is cleverly interlaced with many strikingly effective scenes of industrial aetivity in factory and workshop, on the wharves, in the harvest field, and among the hushfellers and timber men. Other views are typical of happenings in the streets and the railway stations. and they all carry the impress of photography in its most efficient form. The sets and sound equipment were designed and made at the Government film studio at Miramar, Wellington. The opening is dramatic, and the accompanying screen and sound eft'ccts provide the right atmosphere for thc scene eliowing an unemployed man battling his way through a storm after a day's fruitlesS search for work. . As an interlude, there is shown a scene in the of&ce of the Minister of Labour, the Hon. H. T, Armstrong, with whom are assoeiated Mr J. S. Hunter (Seerctary of Labour) aud Mr A. J. Eidler (Oontroller of Employment- and Director of ihe State Placement : Service). Quite informally they comment on the service gcnerally, and the Minister strongly urges. the public-to wit-. ness the film when it is> shown in the various towns so'that they may obtani a knowledge of th'e service methods anrl of its importance in the efforts to reiustate disengaged men into private employment. - • Another Day's Tramp. Then follow scenes in the home of a worker desperately harassed througb failure to secure a' job; his wif o co-un-sels conrage and continued effort, . and ; so he starts off on another day 's tramo round the business houses. In a-brighter atmosphere are the views of suburban passengers arriving in thousands at a city railway terminal and hurrying along the platf orm and to

the tramcars waiting at the station. Interest is main^ained at a higK level wEle the screen shows remarkaljly fine pictures of a reaper and binder at work on a splendid crop, of bushmen driving their axes into a: giant tree, and of the subsequent fate in the sawmill. PactorieB and workshops provide further attractive and instruetive pictures^ and then a. visit is paid to the water,front, where are to be seen many hundreds- of men awaiting the daily. call for work omthe ships. In these scenes one unconeeiously ■ visualises that hero is the peTfect presentation of work to be done and the man-and-woman-power to do it. Sir HaTry Lauder introduces a lighter vein by appearing among the crowds of workers at the Hutt Eailway Workshops and very enthusiastically leading a community "sing." The Happy • Ending. In between the scenes the- searcher for work is noted, to be making frequent calls upon business firms, but without succees. He is accosted on the wharf by a friend, who very jubilantly informs him that he ha's just seeured a good job through ,the Placement Service, and he decides to . give this organisation "a go." The frienilly reception * accorded him creates an optimistic outlook,' and when ' lat'er he recounts the story to his wife they grasp the signifi'cance of the fact' that the influential and far-xeaching reiources of the Placement Service are now allied with him. Faith regained is a 'ujuvenati'ng agent, and then comes the day when a Post OfSce letter-carrier, oblivioue of the tremendous importance of tho missive, casiially drops a Government envelopo into the leftcr-box. Hastily it is lorn open, and then the man - finds that tho service has been successful in finding Hura, a most satisl'actory job. The picture coneludes, most appropri acely, with a brief address in which the speaker suggests, on behalf of the New Zealand Manufacturers ' Fcdcration,

that eonsistcnt buyiftg of New Zealandmado goods would very appreeiably lielp to prevent a roeurrenee of . the disastrous economie chaos that has during tlie past six years cfeated poverty and suft'ering in so many homes i in the Dominion,