SYDNEY LETTER

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 188, 11 May 1928, Page 10

SYDNEY LETTER

ANZAC DAY CELEBRATIONS •

FIRST PEAL FROM WAR MEMORIAL CARILLON

Dominion Special Service.

Sydney, April 30.

Anzac Day was suitably celebrated on April 25. In Sydney the Returned Soldiers’ League assisted in a wonderful and impressive display, which consisted of a march of military and naval units and many thousand returned soldiers in mufti through the main streets. Aeroplanes buzzed overhead and the streets were lined with people who stood with bowed heads*as the procession passed. A religious.service was.held in the Domain, in which the vast assembly participated through the distribution of a large number of loudspeakers amongst it. One hundred thousand people were present. Considerable indignation Is sometimes expressed in the Press because citizens pass the Cenotaph without uncovering the head. It is pointed out that in London even the taxi drivers do the nation’s dead this honour. Perhaps the custom will grow here, but it has certainly not been adopted. It would be wrong to reproach the Australian with a lack of reverence or patriotism. No nation is prouder of the exploits of her troops. They live, as they fought, care-free and with a smile, taking the good and the bad together, but resolute in purpose. Australia is breeding a remarkably fine and virile race. They may be indifferent perhaps to some of life’s little refinements, but they are never oblivious of the duties, obligations, and principles of both manhood and nationhood.

The King sent an inspiring message to which the overnor-General replied as follows :—“The message from the King and Queen joining with their Australian people in proud remembrance of their beloved dead has deeply touched them, and the Prime Minister asks me on their behalf to lay before Their Majesties their loyal and grateful thanks.” Sydney was charged with the first peel and music from the War Memorial Carillon on Anzac Day. The Carillon bought by public subscription is housed in a tower at the Sydney University "to commemorate the war services of Sydney University soldiers and other soldiers whose memorials have been entrusted to the University.” Country for Wheat Farms. Every now and again the confirmed pessimist wails his jeremiad, and talks about over-production in something. The West Australian Government is opening up big tracts of country for wheat farms, with roads and railways to accommodate the immigrants, who will settle there under the Imperial migration scheme. It has been pointed out vthat there is great over-production in wheat, and the farming of another wheat belt would be a gross act of folly and ineptitude. As though in answer, prices rose in Chicago, in the usual gamble to control American supplies. It reminds one of the dismal p’redictions of the same short-sighted people, when the Dried Fruits' Association was being formed. The pessimist said Australia could never compete with Greece and the Levant, and unless Australians consumed the whole output. the industry would languish. Australian dried fruits have now completely supplanted Mediterranean supplies in Great Britain. Trade with the East. Mr. H. Louoy Pang, director of a big firm of Chinese exporters and importers, has just returned to Sydney after a four months’ business trip to China. He stated that between 8000 and 10,000 tons of sultanas alone are imported into China by America, as against the few hundred tons .which come from Australia. He is of the opinion that the Australian product is better, and should find a good market. Few people realise what is happening in Asia. Under a process or development and education, mainly on Occidental lines, a tremendous change is taking place. The average Asiatic is demanding ' better conditions, better wages, and some share in the good things of life. There is a school of economists, who see tremendous trade rivalry in this Oriental awakening, to the detriment of white countries. So far, New Zealand and Australia have not found it to their disadvantage. There is an increasing demand for wool, as witness the heavy purchases by Japan. Presently our meat, dairy produce, flour, wines, and fruit will find a ready market in the Easß It all depends how quickly Eastern ideas of living approximate to our own.

The Film Industry.

There is a considerable stir in the moving picture industry in Australia' as the result of proposed legislation to increase the duty on foreign films to a halfpenny per foot. Proposals have been made for the establishment o* distributing agencies for British films. It is also proposed to award sums to the best films produced in Australia, viz, £5OOO for the first, £2500 for the second, and £l5OO for the'third, in order of merit, and awards also for the best scenarios expressing Australian sentiment. Censorship is to be strictly exercised over films exhibited to aborigines or natives of mandated territories. But most interesting of all is the proposal to grade films so as to enable the parent to decide whether it will be suitable for children to see. The marking of films “for adults only” is prohibited unless the censors mark it such. No more will this sign fill a house with an expectant crowd to see a film-which would not draw half-a-dozen people on its merits. These Federal measures, if adopted, will mean increased protection and preference to British films, and a -renter amount of encouragement to locally-made films. They will be hailed with delight by the literary section of the community, who will find in scenario writing an outlet for their imagination and talent. And literature in Australia does require encouragement. There are writers' here who would starve if they depended wholly on their pen for a livelihood How it will be possible to build up Austin lian art and literature with the scant support accorded passes understanding. No country lias blossomed into greatness without its thinkers, philosophers, poets, writers, and artists. In Australia they have to peddle their wares.