EXCEPTION TAKEN

Hokitika Guardian, 16 March 1933, Page 2

EXCEPTION TAKEN

' ’ 1 * .Tv TO ; REMARKS IN LEGISLATURE. PICTURES FOR UNEMPLOYED. Picture theatre managers throughout New Zealand hav e taken exception" to remarks made in the Legislative C°uini\] recently, by tho Hon. R. McCallum, that the unemployed should b e taken out of the cities and away from the picture shows and other attractions. “We are not s o concerned with what Mr McCallum said as that there may be other people who consider the unemployed are not entitled ,to a , little respite from the drab existence that necessarily must b e theirs in these difficult times,” said an Auckland manager this week. “It is a fact that amusement of some sort L now recognised as an essential rathe,- than a luxury of life, and I am .not overstating the case when I say that were ,it not for the picture shows and other sources of amusement, the task of dealing with th 6 unemployed would have been much more difficult than it hag been.

“Ther e ,are people who consider the payment of the admission fe e on the part of the worker an unnecessary expenditure, but ha s it ever occurred to them to inquire what th e picture people have done apart- from their payment of the taxes?” h e asked. ‘'Have they ascertained that most of u<s make a pr,actic e of issuing free tickets which, through the proper minrtersj- are distributed among deservin Vases? We know the beneficial effect of pleasure on men and women who have become despondent and we resent the inference that we encourage people to waste their money.” “Only thb ''other day,” lh e continued, “the Dean 'sf n Manchester made some remarks that are apropos.

He said ; ' “An industrial civilisation make# the problem of recreation ?m extraordinarily difficult on e to solve, and I doubt very much whether it can he solved -in our days, apart from the theatre and the cin e ma. Recreation in the conditions which obtain in our cities ‘is not a luxury; it is a necessity. And those who are engaged jn the theatrical profession and its allied industries and arts, are performing . an essentia] function in the life of the community, and .never more essentially than in these exceedingly difficult days, when it is of th e highest .importance that from time to time people’s minds should be free from the continual pressure of contempomrv limitations.”