THE PUTARURU PRESS. ’Phone 28 – – – P.O. Box 44 Office – – – – Oxford Place THURSDAY, JULY 19, 1928. BRITISH PICTURES.

Putaruru Press, Volume VI, Issue 246, 19 July 1928, Page 4

THE PUTARURU PRESS. ’Phone 28 - - - P.O. Box 44 Office - - - - Oxford Place THURSDAY, JULY 19, 1928. BRITISH PICTURES.

QUITE a big agitation is being worked up by interested parties against the proposed Cinematograph Film Bill, which embodies the British quota proposals. Despite the columns which have been devoted to the views of objectors, no sound argument has yet been advanced against the main objects of the Bill, while some of the arguments used by objectors are trivial in the extreme, and undoubtedly the work of big financial interests from overseas Which, are likely to suffer loss if the Bill becomes law. It has been stated that people cannot be made patriotic by Act of Parliament, but this type of argument is purely specious and will not bear examination. Such reasoning is puerile for it is purely by regulation and Acts of Parliament —beginning in parental training in the home and ending on the Statute 800k —that the great ideals of British patriotism have been built up. It is the fundamental object of the Bill to ensure that pictures portraying these ideals are screened. While Britain was fighting for these ideals another country whose ideals generally were not so far advanced seized the opportunity to build up a great film industry, and entrench itself so thoroughly that it is now recognised by leading statesmen that if these ideals, which incidentally prompted Britain to fight for her greatest commercial competitor as well as herself, are to be perpetuated some slight assistance must be given. Be it noted that only slight, assistance is proposed—s per cent with a small yearly increase—yet so afraid are these foreign interests of British skill and ingenuity that their outcry borders on hysteria. There is no doubt that much harm has been done in India and other parts, to not only British prestige, but also that of the white man, by films from sources which have no responsibilities of Empire, while on the other hand screenings in Auckland and as close as Arapuni prove that British pictures are desired by British folk. On the commercial side the argument is equally sound. Britain is our best customer, and it is to our own monetary advantage to spend all we possibly can in her markets. Foreign film makers pay us little in taxation, and their Homeland bleeds Britain while in demanding payment of war debts which were largely incurred on their behalf, and mainly spent in their country.

The arguments for a Quota Bill are overwhelming, and it is to be hoped that Mr. Coates will not budge an inch in modifying the main objects of the Bill in response to the clamour which is largely fostered by financial interests from overseas.