Manawatu Herald SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1928. MUNICIPAL PICTURE MERGER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3756, 18 February 1928, Page 2

Manawatu Herald SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1928. MUNICIPAL PICTURE MERGER.

THE Borough Council, in taking a lease of the Royal Theatre for period of seven years, has thereby eliminated local competition in the picture business. If, by so,doing, it has created a monopoly, then such monopoly is of the socialistic order —we are all in it. It must be'admitted that the local population is not large enough to justify the profitable rulining of two picture houses. Further, the Council were the first to inaugurate picture showing in Foxtou for two reasons: (1) To cater for public entertainment and to assure that the Town Hall should 'be made self-supporting. The public, by their continuous and liberal patronage, have endorsed the municipal enterprise, knowing that any surplus profits would be applied to ciivic purposes. There has been no attempt on the part of the Council to starve out opposition. In fact film-hiring companies give preference to other jhan municipally controlled pictures, so that the Council has, in the past, been restricted as to programmes. The negotiations in connection with the Royal Theatre could not be made public until the matter had been considered by the Council. The Council had a precedent for the present action based on previous negotiations. The Council has carefully considered the whole question and a policy will be laid down to safeguard any loss. Should anything unforeseen happen, however, the Council can ♦readil.v transfer the venture to private enterprise. In the meantime we believe the Council’s action will have the backing of the public, and speculation as to the wisdom or otherwise of the merger would at the present stage be premature.