MOVING PICTURES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81894, 26 November 1906, Page 3

MOVING PICTURES.

THEIR GROWTH IN POPULARITY. Mr. T. J. West, whose name ha? been associated with moving pictures almost e)wr since they were first shown to the world, and who, by frequent visiis to the scene of contin-. uotii improvement in mechanism, has been able to keep close in toufch with everything that has tended to make the picture more perfect, is at present in New Plymouth. Mr West arrived on Thursday, and will personally supervise the season which commences on Monday, December 3rd in the Theatre Royat. "Yes, indeed," he said when interviewed on Saturday, "there seems tj be no lack of interest in the cinematograph, and day by day thei demand increases for the right kind of material, as murh at home as in the colonies. How i» it accounted for r .Well, I think —indeed 1 am sure—that many of the scientific method--1 have been able to introduce, and incorporate with the cinematograph, ■uch as the silhouette system, the adaptation of the steroscopo, and the hame sing of the microscope to the camera, whereby it is possible to produce such striking and educative results, account in a great measure for the marvellous succes> I have obtained at home and abroad.''

How do you arrange a combination of the microscope and the cinematograph, and for what" purpose ? ' "The answer to the first part of the ] question wou'd require too much tech- ' nical detail, but to the latter part I may say it enables me to take a peep .into many hidden secrets of Nature, and demonstrates the life of the busy bee, the world of the ant, and tveu the fishes of the =ea. There is acarcely a habitable part of the globe .where operators are not continually obtaining for me pictures of =ccnic interest and national characteristics. The pictures I took of New Zealand were a puenomcnal success in England, it is the custom to change the at the Alhambra, in London, every week, but mine were kept on for two weeks tunning, and Loid Roberts sent for me specially to show him privately my New Zealand cadet pictures. Just before saUmg for Auiir dia on the Marmora, he iequ*stn: :. to leave them .behind to ?how during his :«cturc on 'lmperial Defence' before the boys of the Rugby School. This I was only too happy to do, and I have no doubt they wi I help to stimulate the cadet movement at home ' Is there any danger of exhausting the supply of suitable productions?— "i think not, for there are always new topical events arising which the public prefer to see illustrated by picture rather than by reading. Take for instance, the repent deplorable San Francisco earthquake. The scries

fi films I have of this terrible disaster 'if mtfct exhaustive, and convey .1 much better idea of the havoc wrought than could be imagined by any amount of reading matter, 01 even from the photos published by Ihe illustrated weeklies, for my picture* are life itself. The mechanical md electrical effects are under the oantrol of an efficient staff that have worked under my direction for the past ten years, so that you may «xpect perfection in the projection, and I feel sure that I will be able to place before the public of New P >'- mouth an animated picture exhibition', the like of which has not hitherto been seen in this town."