RATING POWER TO ASSIST IN THEATRICAL WORK

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 February 1948, Page 8

RATING POWER TO ASSIST IN THEATRICAL WORK

LONDON, February 23

Power is to be given to local authorities in Britain to build theatres and concert halls and help to finance orchestras by levying a rate. When the subject was discussed in the House of Commons, the Minister of Health (Mr Aneurin Bevan) said he believed there was a “real hunger” for something beyond a feature film day after day. Mr Bevan mentioned the cinema run by miners who, to avoid paying entertainment tax, put on Greek plays. Now they complained, said Mr Bevan, that they were making more profit from the Greek plays than from films.

The British film industry continues to be in difficulties. Many studios are now idle, and Lord Strabolgi told the House of Lords that one-third of the available studio space was unoccupied, and that employees were “being sacked left and right.”

The position is so bad that film workers have sent a telegram to Mr Harold Wilson, President of the Board of Trade, asking for immediate talks on increasing production to save the “steady deteriorating industry.” It is held that the film industry’s slump is a direct result of Britain’s 75 per cent, tax on American films, which reduced cinema profits used for British film productions.