PICTURES IN AUSTRALIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 April 1922, Page 6

PICTURES IN AUSTRALIA.

A HIGH STANDARD. In a special Kinema Number issued a few weeks ago, the London Times has something to say concerning the genesis of the picture business in this part of the world. “By universal consent,” says the Times, “the title of pioneer of the picture show in Australasia is given to Mr. T. J. West. In 1903 and 1904 Mr. West took a show through New Zealand and later Australia. The first part of the show was given to vaudeville, the second to pictures. Such a success did the enterprise prove that in 1906 Mr. West hired a hall in Sydney exclusively for pictures. Incidentally it is claimed that this show was the first to combine a large orchestra with the display of pictures, the band numbering over thirty. Gradually other competitors entered the field. American competition came two years later, and in 1909 Sydney and Melbourne saw their first “continuous shows.’ ”

The Times indicates that, compared with Britain, Australasia is particularly well served by American film producers. “Those associated with the industry allege,” says the Times, “that if Australasian audiences are among the most enthusiastic, they are certainly among the most critical. Australia itself is only able to absorb about one-tenth of the world's output of film and the need, for selection means that only the best pictures are sent out. The result is an exceptionally high standard of programme, and an Australian or New Zealand audience has little patience with anything below that standard. The best American pictures are released in Australasia some time before they are seen in this country, and it must be confessed that the films from the United States enjoy an ascendancy in Australia that amounts to something very near to a monopoly—a well-known agent in lx>ndon estimating their proportion as some', thing between 80 and 90 per cent. Tn comparison British pictures are seen but

seldom, and the intense emotion of the Continental schools finds little fa/or with the casual and rather phlegmatic Australian.”