AMERICAN FILMS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXIV, Issue 10489, 14 October 1926, Page 5

AMERICAN FILMS

CHEAP AND TRASHY PICTURES IN NEW ZEALAND.

CINEMA TRACE IN DOMINION

SIR J. PARR APPEALS TO BRITISH PRODUCERS

LONDON, Oct. 12

“The day of pioneers is gone. The chief factors of the change in Dominion life in fifteen years are motor cars and cinemas,” said Sir James Parr, replying to Lord Stanley of Alclersley’s welcome at the Colonial Institute’s luncheon. He appealed to British motor makers to study Australian and New Zealand markets.

“Let us gather round the table and create a mutual trade. In the second place, 95 per cent, of the films shown in New Zealand are cheap, trashy American ones, and lass than 2 per cent, are British. It is disquieting to see children of the Empire influenced by foreign propaganda films, deprecating the Englishman’s prestige. Renters in Australia and New Zealand are forced to take twelve bad if they want one good American film. This should be the foremost problem “the Imperial Conference tackles. I love the United States at a distance. I like to trade with them but I prefer to trade within our own family, instead of helping pernicious un-Britis.h propaganda, which has changed the entire outlook in Canada, Australia and New Zealand in recent vears.”—A and N.Z.C.A.