KEEEY – GANG PICTURES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3769, 20 August 1907, Page 2

KEEEY - GANG PICTURES.

Christchurch Truth takes up the demoralising effect of moving pictures of the Kelly-Gang order. We have already expressed our opinion on the subject. Our Christchurch contemporary says : “ If -a vote were taken of the colonial youth as to the most heroic figure in Australian history, we think Ned Kelly would be an easy first, with George Reid and Bill Squires a bad second and. third respectively. There is something very pernicious about this eternal glorification of the deeds of the Kelly gang by means of cheap melodrama and biograph shows, and every now and then we hear of youths being fired with a desire to achieve fame in the bushranging business. The vendors of. sensationalism by the means mentioned are really debauching youthful ideals, and doing an incalculable amount of harm in the community, and it is time there was a Censor to prohibit entertainments of the kind. 'There never was anything noble or heroic about Ned Kelly and Co. ; they were a a gang of disreputable thieves and murderers, without a redeeming quality, yet a glamour of romance is growing up around their villainous exploits, and callow, featherheaded youths, whose chief delight is in detective stories and cigarettes, are prepared to worship the memory of the outlaws. Just now the police up North are trying to capture some of these juvenile despeiadoes, who, in emulation of Ned Kelly, have taken to the bush. In all probability the boys will land themselves in gaol; but the fault is not so much theirs as their parents, who have not looked after them better. ’ ’