BIOGRAPH PIONEERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13926, 7 December 1908, Page 6

BIOGRAPH PIONEERS.

SOLOMON ISLANDS SCENES.

A party' of throe biograph operators, representing Path© Freros, of London and Paris, have just reached Sydney (says the Sydney Morning Herald of Wednesday last), after a tour of the Solomon Islands and New Guinea to secure pictures representative of scenery and lifo in those islands. ' At Guadalcanal in the Solomons, the party penetrated further into the interior than any white man had yet done. The natives were always a factor to bo reckoned with. Eight years ago an Austrian Baron and his exploring party were all massacred on this island. Just before the biograph party arrived the bushmon from the interior made a raid on the coastal natives, and killed three men. The scrub and undergrowth on Guadalcanal was almost impassablo, and the picture people found the streams the best pathways. fhoy waded for hours up the rivers, and' secured some striking pictures of waterfalls and rapids, with a background of tropical jungle. A lot of films were secured, the subjects being chiefly connected with native life in the islands and the eocoanut industry, though perhaps not the loast interesting picture will prove on reproducing a specially acted sccno in which Jack London is killed— "speared" as he gallantly faces a murderous horde of blacks.

Leaving Guadalcanal the party voyaged to Papua, where they scoured some fine views of the wild country inland, and a good series of pictures of the mission settlements.