FRIEND “ABO" GOES TO THE MOVIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 August 1928, Page 9

FRIEND “ABO" GOES TO THE MOVIES

Strange Contrasts In Cosmopolitan Broome . . . Camel Trains&MotorCars

Black Mary Not Likely to Emulate Playful Ways of Clara Bow ...

T seems strange that in a ■ country such as Australia, men should live as they lived in the dark ages, preferring a life where club rule is the dominant factor, when in the same land cabarets and picture shows abound. Yet it is undoubtedly true, for along the north-west Austra; lian seaboard the natives are still to be found in a primitive state, little removed from their cave-man prototypes of the distant past. Civilisation of a kind had entered into the lives of those who have been in frequent contact, with the white man, yet the veneer is thin upon them, and at times the call of the wild proves too much, and they discard the garb we call civilisation and roam 1 the bush as their ancestors did before them. Broome, which lies high near the Buccaneer Archipelago, boasts a black population of some hundreds, but they ■ are mostly transient visitors, drawn from the aboriginal camps along the north-west coast. The majority o them have had no contact with white men before, and the sudden glimpse of a township of even the proportions of Broome must be amazing to the :blacks, whose sole conception of a dwelling is but a few reeds and bushes drawn hastily together to form a crude covering for them. A STUDY IN CONTRASTS

Broome presents an extraordinary

study in contrasts, for all manner of ihumanicy is drawn to this last point of civilisation— Japanese, Malays, Chinese, Coupangers, Irishmen, Englishmen, an Jews; black fellows of varying hue—half-castes and quarter-castes I—air 1 —air the weird compounds of strange alien races, blended together. The ; scene- is strange, for in this remote ! part of Australia we have the customs •of every country presented. Japanese ! characters adorn the shop fronts as they do in Tokyo; Chinese shamble past with that strange gait of the East, a long pole across their backs, swinging two baskets at either end. White girls dispense cooling drinks to every thirsty European, while black fellows squat in the shade of a baobaob tree and meditate upon their tribes in distant Yampi Sound, and wonder at i 'strange sight of a European city. In the distance a camel team comes rolling over the salidhills with a turbaned Indian swinging a 12ft. whip. It is like a scene from “The Arabian

: Nights.” The leader-camel pokes it: ■ifeck in all directions, and bellows with fear as it sees the whip ascend'ing. The whip cracks like a pistoi shot, and the team rolls into a moving canter, the cart, with its 7ft. wheels, sinking axle deep in the soft sand. Such is Broome, with its scattered tinroofed bungalows and yellow sands. Adjoining the Japanese quarter is a picture show, incongrous in an Eastern setting, and the feats of Tom Mix,

the abandon of Nita Naldi, or the humour of Charlie Chaplin confront one from blatant posters. Chinese children, stand agape at the sinuous

curves of the vampire woman depicted on the “bills,” and black fellows and their lubras seem interested in the horse describing evolutions in its attempt to unseat a cowboy rider. All the world and his “wives” seem to meet round this picture show in the farthest corner of Australia.

The picture theatre is the Wall Street of Broome, for most of the important business is transacted during the evening interval for refreshments. The chief postmaster gives me a quotation for the sending of 800 words of Press message, the man in the corner of th'e vestibule is probably selling his pearl shell, while the Scotsman is wondering how he can get in without paying. Aboriginal women who, two days before, had seen a white man for the first time, are holding their shillings tightly clenched in their hands. They were given them by the pearler who employs their men-folk. Their attire is the strangest that one

could imagine. Like all primitive people, colour is the keynote of their existence. Vivid red scarves adorn their necks, with long flowing dresses of the early eighties, their faces beaming with pleasure at witnessing the white man’s recreations. SOCIAL STRATIFICATION . Inside the theatre the. populace is divided according to the varying social strata. The Japanese sit on one side of the room, with the Chinese at the back. Blackfellows and their wives and families take up one-quarter of the theatre, while the Europeans, like the Pharisees, sit in their cane-seated chairs and thank God they are not as bad as these men. It is a strange scene, and as the orchestra strikes up, a murmur goes round the blackfellows’ seats, 'wondering at this strange form of European entertainment. Indeed, were it not for the restraining hand of some of the more

civilised blacks, many would leap from their seats in terror at the strange sounds emanating from the violin and piano. The black “pfcllers” do not like Gazettes. They cannot understand snow.scenes in Surrey, or the review of troops in Hyde Park. The drama left them cold. Even the seductive wiles of the carmine-lipped vampire failed to move these cavemen. To her, short shrift would have been meted out by the waddy of an an unconcerned hubby. And if any of the lubras present had tried to emulate her wiles, a cracked head would have soon ended her stage career. The Japanese appeared to follow the plot with interest. Doubtless they could improve upon the hero’s lack of interest in the vampire’s seductiveness. The close-up of the final kiss at the end was as unappealing to the aboriginals as ice-cream would be an an Eskimo. But the cowboy picture! bounds

that were supposed to be “hurrahs” came from a hundred throats, the galloping of horses down a winding path set two hundred black feet in motion, and they followed the scenes with interest, having no idea of the plot beyond the fact that the cowboys were good horsemen. They yelled and stamped with pleasure as a dozen horsemen swept round a corner at an angle, and when “God Save the King” sounded, their faces showed the. rapture they had felt at such a display of horsemanship. Away in the distance the riding lights of a dozen pearling luggers twinkled, the strange sounds of a jargon of languages sounded as I walked along. Roebuck Bay was mirrored in silver, and the tinkle of a camel bell sounded in the distance. It seemed unreal that I was in Australia, where such cities as Melbourne and Sydney are.

Bernard C. Ryder,

F.R.G.S.)