MOTION PICTURES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5309, 6 August 1928, Page 3

MOTION PICTURES.

THE INDUSTRY IN NEW ZEALAND. ADDRESS Bl 7 MR P. C. FURLEY. An interesting address on the motion picture industry wa.s delivered by Mr P. C. Furiey, who is manager of a Queent Street picture thea.tre; in Auckland, at the meeting of the Paeroa Orphans’ Club on Thursday night.

In referring to the widespread: popularity of the. “movies” the speaker said that there were 420 picture theatres in New Zealand, 63 of which were controlled by his firm. Jn Auckland there, were 42 pictur.ei shows, with a.n average weekly attendance of 50,000 persons. A new theatre to seat 2300 people, and costing approximately £163,000, was in course of erection at Wellington. When completed it would be the largesjt. and best-equipped picture theatre in the Dominion. Mod : e'l’n tearooms, capable of seating 600 people, would form a part of the new building, and the furnishings were] to be carried out in an-Old English stylA In the main room there was to be a fireplace 22ft wide and of uniqub. design. The centre of the tearooms would be used for dancing, for which purpose a special glass floo'r, lighted by -electric floodlights from underneath,, was being provided, similar to tihe famous dance floors of Milan a.nd Atlantic City. The film industry in New Zealand provided employment for. over 1000 employees, and! the amount paid out for film hire approximated £lOO,OOO annually, whil|e, well over £lOO.OOO was paid in wages in the Dominion. FILM QUOTA BILLReferring to the Government measure known as “The Film Quota Bill, Mr Furiey said there was little, doubt tha.t the public favoured the British film, but the exhibitors ffier.e not betting ia, fair deal. His contention was that it was unfair and wrong for the Governnyent to dictate what was to 'be screened. British films should be brought into the Dominion free of duty, and then all would be well. A serious’ anomaly was that American filmf.exc-ha.nges escaped payment of inccipe tax ,whereas a British film company in Au.-tralia last year had paid £2200 more than all the other exchanges put together. The result was that British companies had to charge up films to the New Zealand .companies at such a rate that there was no margin of profit left. A solution to the difficulty would! be to impose a tax of 5 per cent, on the annual turnover of exchange compan’es. SPEAKING

Rc-lei'ring to the advance of the industry. the speaker, said that a new era had dawned with the invention of a p:cture-speaking machine known as ■the “Morritone.” This machine was now in use: in over 1000' theatres; in America, there being ten theatres on Broadway, New York, alonle, that were equipped with talking machines. In explaining the: system he said' that the voices of the players were transferred to the screen simultaneously with tlife. showing of the picture per medium of a tiny nay of light which varied as the film passed through the, machine, the voices being amplified by means of a loud-speaker. The cost of such machines at thei present timie was about £2OOO. In his opinion the provision of film talking machines would never entirely replace: the silent pictures, on account of the many languages spoken by the actors and actresses, some of whom could scarcely speiak a word of English.