THE MODERN METHOD

Southland Times, Issue 19276, 21 June 1924, Page 7

THE MODERN METHOD

EDUCATION BY PICTURES. AFTERNOON SESSION AT ALBION. There was an unwarranted bustle before the steps of the Albion Theatre about L3O o’clock yesterday afternoon, long lines of school children forming up, and each carload added to their numbers. Inside there was much clamour and a babble of tongues as the children greeted one another. The occasion was the screening of the first series of Educational pictures which are to be shown the town school children every month when possible. It Was a change from the routine of school life and the children, who came from all quarters of Invercargill, regarded it in holiday spirit. This innovation was begun by the Education Department last year, and it may be accepted as a vision of the future, when children will study their geography from the silver sheet. The opening film took the children to sunny Italy, where Mt. Vesuvius wag shown belching forth smoke and ashes, and a daring feat of the modern camera-man was carried out—the film being taken from a 'plane which flew over th* crater itself. The next film brought the audience back to New Zealand, where the weird wonders of the Wairakei Valley—steam vents, boiling springs and boiling cauldrons of mud—were depicted. The pictures which followed gave a few interesting scenes from alligator and gold-fish “farms” respectively. The next to flash on the screen was issued by the New Zealand Government Publicity Department and gave the eager watchers a few glimpses of Christchurch with its Cathedral, its busy streets, its squares and the winding willow-covered banks of the Avon. The picture concluded with a short flight by ’plane over the city and scenes of the trotting meeting and the Summer Show. A trip to Spain, via the silver sheet, was next on the programme, and, in quick succession the old-world customs of the country, the beauties of the Palace of Alhambra, with its Moorish facades, its glittering tracery of carving and its domes and towers, the Royal Palace and the bullfighting pit passed before the eyes of the children. “Thrills and Spills” was the final title and it sent the children to the snowcrested peaks of Switzerland, the playground of Europe. An ice carnival, a series of acrobatic stunts on ice skates, racing on skates, skiing and ice yachting, were but a few of the views and thrills of this fitting finale to the afternoon. “This is better than school," said more than cne youthful philosopher as he filed out of the theatre with his comrades.