MOVIE-MAKING.

Northern Advocate, 27 April 1921, Page 3

MOVIE-MAKING.

SCENE AT PALMERSTON NORTH,

It was with great interest that a large number of Palmerston North people in the Square a few days ago witnessed the spectacle of a motion picture in the making. Several episodes in a film to be screened next week were "shot." The first scene, depicting the arrival of the hero in the play at a railway station, was tfiken at the local staiion. The members of the east, which includes two local performers, then proceeded per motor car to th<* Bank of Now Zealand, Here the episode taken showed a bank robbery, First the hero.ine dashed up on horseback (the horse in this case being Warlock, the champion pacer), and as she descended the ;ieps with a bundle of notes was seizPil by the villain, who had come up in n motor ear, and was carried off. So -roat was the interest of the public in the scene that a way had to be cleared in the crowd to allow the picture to be "shot," and several attempts were made before a satisfactory result was obtained. The next scene showed an exciting chase in which a motor car and a motor cycle took part, The producers had sonic difficulties in their way. The public regulations would not allow the us? of firearms and blank ammunition, but toy automatic pistols were used in some of tho scenes, and when shown in the picture will no doubt look just as effective as a real death-dealing weapon.

A whale, 57ft Gin in length, was washed ashore last week on the Ninety-mile Beach, about two miles south of the outlet of Lake Forsyth, Canterbury. It was discovered by a Maori, who informed the other inhabitants of the nearby native settlement.. The whale was alive when found, and struggled considerably, lashing the beach with its tail till it d ; ed. The Maoris waited till life was extinct, and then lost no time in removing the blubber, which they sold for a substantial'sum to a Chr'stchurch firm of soap and candle manufacturers. They also removed a fair quantity of whalebone. The whale, in fact, has been quite a little w'ndfall to the settlement. It is the first that has come ashore in that neighbourhood within the memory of the oldest inhabitant.