AN ADMIRED CITY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 74, 24 February 1938, Page 11

AN ADMIRED CITY

SQUARE IMPRESSES VISITOR. THROUGH A TRAVELLER’S EYES. “I have been much impressed with your city. The Square is so well laid out, with wide streets, and it is so clean that it reminds me greatly of Melbourne. I have also been struck by your fine buildings. The theatres are all fine and, to my mind, would compare with the best of the suburban theatres in Australia —and that is saying something.” This is the opinion of Palmerston North as it is seen through the eyes of a widely travelled business executive, who has included the United States and the whole of Australia in his journeyings. He is Mr R. G.-Nelson, publicity director for the Universal Film Company in New Zealand, who, in conversation with a “Standard” representative, passed some very interesting observations on his experiences both in the Dominion and the Commonwealth.

Mr Nelson, who has been in New Zealand for the past five months, has during that period travelled extensively to acquaint himself with the various centres. Though he has been for many years in Australia he has a close connection with' the Dominion, his father, Mr Leonard Nelson, having, between 1908 and 1918, been one of the most popular comedians on the Fuller circuit. Incidentally Mr Ne-.son, senr., who now lives in the Blue Mountains in retirement, but hopes to return to Christchurch, was the author of popular song hits. For the past 24 years Mr Nelson, junr., has been closely identified with the stage and theatre, having served under Mr Hugh D. McIntosh and with Mr Robert Greig, who is frequently seen in butler roles on the films. When Mr Mclntosh took over the control of the Sydney Tivoli Theatre from the Harry Rickards interests Mr Nelson played with Miss Beatrice Hollaway in a series of very successful plays, Mr Greig being the producer. VARYING IMPRESSIONS. “I was last in New Zealand in 1931, and I have been here only five months this time, but I have been much impressed with the changes that have taken place in the intervening period,” said Mr Nelson. “I have been struck by the building activity in the cities, and the people themselves have advanced a. great deal and become more modernised —but there is lots of room for improvement. The railways are very dirty. The lavish Wellington railway station is very beautiful, but on the inside I had to run around to purchase a ticket for Palmerston North—there was no indication as to where one might be bought for this place, though there were the names of other places displayed. And one can’t get food at night. Last Sunday I went for a motor trip from Wellington to Masterton- —wanting to see the itimutakas. We left at mid-day and thought we would get food at one of the hotels on the way. Instead we did not get a meal until we reached Masterton, and then we got afternoon tea. at a shop at 4.5 p.m. There was not even a soft drink available. In Australia you can, if you are a bona fide traveller—that is if you have travelled 20 miles or more—demand food or drink by law.” Mr Nelson, however, found a great deal to praise in the Dominion. Auckland he regarded as the most attractive city; it was really the key city to the Dominion , and —again like Melbourne—was well laid out, with a high standard of entertainment facilities and with excellent hotels. Auckland Harbour,' he thought, surpassed that of Sydney in respect- of its virgin state, Port Jackson having suffered by commercialisation and the building of dwellings right to the water’s edge. SCENERY UNSURPASSED. “Your scenery surpasses anything on the other side of the world. I have travelled widely and I have never seen anything like it. Australia has nothing to equal it,” remarked Mr Nelson. “The glow-worm cave at Waitomo is itself a prize.” In respect to publicity the New Zealand Government, was much more alive than that of the Australian authorities. “Over there they do know you exist,” he added. Incidentally, in Sydney there was a New Zealand Society, a very strong organisation which met. regularly. In the city there were nearly two thousand New Zealanders.

“All the best men on the staffs of the city newspapers are New Zealanders, but I venture to say that the newspapers in New Zealand would lose those of Australia for make-up and news,” added Mr. Nelson. “New Zealand people are great paper readers—more so than the Australians,_ and I think the educational standard is much higher than in Australia.- Your young girls, in particular, speak beautiful English, while they are very ‘nasalised’ over there.” 1 “SLOW BUT SURE.” “New Zealand is slow but sure,” observed the traveller. “Most people from Australia are high-pressure people and expect to find liighpressure methods here, but you are more slow but sure—more British.” On the contrary, Sydney, especially, reflected the American spirit of speed. Speaking of the youth of the respective Dominions, Mr Nelson thought the young women of Sydney had no equal in the rest of Australia and in New Zealand for beauty and physique, but our young men similarly could not be surpassed hi the standard of physique they set. An interesting observation was made by the visitor in respect to feminine fashions, the New Zealand woman, in his opinion, being a copyist in that she frequently turned to the film for her fashions. A case in point was in connection with the Deanna Durbin film, “100 Men and a Girl,” when in the four centres rights had been given to certain firms to sell dresses of the type worn by the child star. Colossal sales were made and in spite of the fact that the frocks were essentially juvenile, women adapted the design to their use. “That could not happen in Australia,” said Mr Nelson. THEATRE PATRONAGE.

In the past five years theatre patronage had increased by marvellous proportions in the Dominion, Mr Nelson stated, even more than m Australia. In Melbourne' there was more home life, in Sydney more flat life, but in New Zealand people went to the pictures. There were between 400 and 500 theatres in the Dominion, and the increased spending power of the masses had in recent years been clearly reflected in the box office takings. Better entertainment was being provided, of course, and though the patronage was excellent, New Zealanders “shopped for their entertainment.” Not a few premieres had been held in the Dominion and if a film was a success it was then screened across the Tasman. “If it succeeds here it is set for Australia,” added Mr Nelson. Such films as “100 Men and a Girl” and “Road Back” were in this category.

Among the gifts received last year at the Exhibition Hall at the office of the High Commissioner for India were three grains of rice on which portraits of King George V and Queen Mary and a view of the GLaj Mahal are engraved.