A New Zealander In Sydney Town

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 552, 3 January 1929, Page 6

A New Zealander In Sydney Town

(From Our Resident correspondent.) SIDNEY, Dec. 27. | Christmas passed quietly enough as Car as Sydney was concerned, with the exception of a slight fracas at Darlinghurst. But then one expects anything to happen at Darlinghurst. Wandering into the general post office toward midnight I found Martin Square practically deserted. Only a very occasional nymph sheltered in the shadowed doorways. At the main entrance I found a thoroughly respectable, but slightly intoxicated suburbanite attempting to force a balloon into the radiator of his car. Otherwise there was no excitement. The flower stands in front of the building, which by day provide one of {Sydney’s most colourful patches, and {Sydney is full of them, were denuded of every particle of Christmas bush. Old tins were scattered over the benches. It almost seemed as if a cyclone had passed by. Meanwhile at Darlinghurst, Sydney’s Montmartre, 41*0 people were inciting an inebria'ted woman to resist arrest. Encouraged by such an audience, and vowing that she was a “perfect lady,*' she tapped a policeman on the head with a beer bottle. Bor a time the situation was extremely serious. Two constables fired shots in the air. The crowd hooted and jeered. A man was subsequently arrested, and joined the woman who caused all the trouble, in an adjacent ceil. Communists’ Christmas.

While all the faithful went to church, Sydney’s Communists celebrated Christmas by holding: a conference. Brother, or rather Comrade Higgins, who was in Russia in 1920, and has just returned from another visit to the proletariat of the Soviet, reported concerning the World Congress of the International held at Moscow. .No fewer than 515 delegates, representing 55 countries, were present. Mr. Higgins claimed that the Congress had "still further clarified the line of the Communist Party in Australia, which has the task of leading the workers against the employers’ offensive and the preparations for war.” Since he was last in Russia, he said, the economic condition of the country had advanced at "an amazing rate.” Harry Burcher Returning Well-known in New Zealand as a producer for J. C. Williamson, Harry Burcher is expected back in Sydney by the Niagara on February 2. He has been engaged by Hoyts Theatres, Ltd., in which Williamsons are very largely interested, to act as producer at the Regent Theatre for 1929. Mr. Burcher will also supervise presentations at the principal Hoyt houses in other parts of Australia. "High Jinks,” "Canary Cottage,” ‘‘You’re In Love,” “The Cabaret Girl,” and the negligible "Tiptoes,” which we saw in New Zealand last year, are among Harry Burcher’s productions for Williamsons. Screen Presentations Screen presentations have always interested me. Therefore, I have carefully observed those at the principal Sydney theatres of late. At the Capitol. I am told, it is by no means

unusual to spend i-1,000 on a single presentation, which, of course, will | only be on view for a week. It is all | very gorgeous and —very American, i Undoubtedly, the Sydney movie i houses are ahead of New Zealand in this respect. There is a snap in the work to which New Zealanders are not yet accustomed. Not a single second is lost. Yet the music is perverted to such an extent that one often wanders out of a theatre with one’s head reeling. That has been my constant experience at one of the biggest theatres here. The musical standard is infinitely higher in New Zealand. I pride myself, too. that New Zealanders are more keenly appreciative of good music. The more conservative style of a Now Zealand picture house is to be preferred. At least our orchestras invariably follow the score as it was written. New Entertainers A number of theatrical artists reached Sydney during the week from America by the Sonoma. William Nikola, the illusionist, who has not been in this part of the world for about seven years, returned with a troupe of pretty girls to commence a season in Melbourne. Harry Kahne, one of America’s best vaudevillians. is here under the Tivoli banner with something new in the way of a thoughtreading turn. Frank Lanterman, organist, passed through en route to Melbourne, where he will play in the new palatial State Theatre, the latest creation in Union Theatres’ chain of houses of entertainment. ERIC RAMSDEN.