PICTURE SHOWS.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14909, 6 March 1914, Page 7

PICTURE SHOWS.

NOT FAVOURED BY W.C.T.U. (rr.ESS ASSOCIATION TELKGRAM.) GISBORNE, Match 5.. "Six years ago," said tho president of the W.C.T.U. in her address to .lay, •'the total number ot" employees in kinematograph theatres in Great Britain was about 500. They now exceed 125,000. Their wages will nrobably run into £12,000,000 per annum". The number of people visiting kinomas per week is estimated at eight millions. There are about 16,000 picture theatres in America, patronised by more than six million people per day. In face of such figures, who can estimate the power ior good or evil of kinemas? "While 1 do not intend to enter into any detailed criticism of nicture shows, I should like to ask, '"What is the effect of a certain class of pictures upon the rising generation?' There is no doubt that a good deal may be learned from films which treat of foreign lands, but it is an incontestable fact that there is another class of picture that demands the most ruthless" supervision. It is a class of picture that is a popular feature at many picture shows. Coarse clandestine love scenes, sensational crimes, bush ranging, scenes of the Deadwood Dick type, aud murders are undoubtedly harmful in their effect on the minds of the young,/for they create a most unwholesome appetite, and invariably lead to wholesale moral decrepitude. A perusal of tho daily advertisements for the kinema will convince you that the programmes are largely* blood-curdling and sensational, aud calculated to hold one spell-bound, and. as one advertisement recently put it, 'with thrills enough to suit tho most exacting.' It is matter for amazement thnt parents who are fully aware of this show such apparent indifference as to the class of entertainment which their children attend. "It might bo well if in New Zealand a responsible body was created to supervise films before they appeared in public. It could do the management no harm, while it would exercise a most beneficial effect upon the community." Dealing with gambling, the_ following remarks wero made in tiie president's address to the members of tho W.C.T.U.: — "As we expected, the racing fraternity made another effort last session to get Parliament to nass into law a Bill increasing the number of race days by thirty, in a country alreatly over-sup-plied, and we are amazed that the Honse could find time to discuss such a Bill when important business affecting the general welfare of- the community was crowded out. As we are convinced that gambling is inimical to the best interests of the people, and likely to become a social cancer unless its growth can be stopped, we must do as our late beloved president advised us at our last Convention, and 'continue to protest against any effort, for lessening the restrictions on gambling/ and we must use all legitimate means to eradicate the gambling evil from tho Dominion and to abolish. the totalisator.''