Visual Education

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 215, 12 September 1938, Page 2

Visual Education

FILMS IN NEW SOUTH WALES SCHOOLS. SYDNEY, Aug. 23. Tho growth of visual education in Now South Wales has been so rapid during tho last year that a lending library of 200 films is now being operated. Six schools have sound machines coating £l6O each and 20 schools have silent machines. Other schools regularly hire picture theatres to exhibit the films to pupils. Films for the Education Department are being acquired at the rate of six a month, and more than 60 have been presented by the Governments of New Zealand, Canada and South Africa. Of this number Canada has made a per manenfc loan of 40 films. The motion picture machines are bought by parents and citizens’ associations of the schools. Two metropolitan and two country schools aud two in the Australian capital territory have bought sound machines. Education officials expect thai within a few years a largo school without film equipment will be an exception. Films at present being circulated throughout New fcJouth Wales schools deal with industrial and geographical subjects. Tourist bureaux, banks, Governments, and business firms have contributed these films. Among them aro: “Meadow to Market and 4 ’Maori,” (New Zealand Government), “Lumbering in British Columbia,” 4 ‘Conquest of the Forest.,” 4 ‘Fish aud Fishing for Everybody,” “Canada’s Maple ludustry,” and “Harvesting the Deep” (Canadian Government); “Sahara,” a sound film of the Sahara Desert; “Tight Lines” (South African Government); “Home” and “Conquest” (Rural Bank of New South Wales); and various films showing different phases of Australian primary and secondary industries. Two films deal with the lives of Brahms and Mendelssohn.

Great interest is being taken by school children throughout the .State, and as the interest grows among parents the raising of funds for the necessary equipment is accelerated. A review of the new films added to the library is published by the Education Department magazine each month. When applications for the films are received the department pays freight for the films t< their destination and the schools whi use them pay the return freight.