The Star. FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 1926. BRINGING THE NATIONS TOGETHER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17864, 4 June 1926, Page 8

The Star. FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 1926. BRINGING THE NATIONS TOGETHER.

The Minister of Public Health for Victoria is reported io have said yesterday that films exhibited in Victoria arc being used for propaganda inimical to the welfare of the Empire, anti it is proposed not only to impose a closer censorship, but also to provide that every picture programme should contain at least a thousand feet of British films. The complaint can hardly be echoed in New Zealand, where the censorship is strict, but the move towards British films is one that is of very wide interest apart from the question of propaganda. Lord Askwith, presiding recently at the British Empire Films institute, at which a telegram was received from the King, wishing the institute all success, said that Britain, which originated romantic fiction, could easily provide material for films of beauty, truth, and a real human interest. The institute would begin with awards of merit, and a bureau of information available for the whole Empire. It would establish a library and a journal, and stimulate fair and sympathetic criticism, and inaugurate conferences. This great new art was not only commercial, but had many facets, not the least of which was the better knowledge of man by man, of country by country, and of races by races. In this, of course, lies the chief value of the film, but there can be no reciprocity between countries if one of them sets out to exploit or distort the national weaknesses of another. Fortunately, a movement is on foot in England to arrange for the systematic exchange of British and American films, and although little headway can be expected until Britain has reached something like the standard of American producers in the more technical details, there is every prospect that the difficulties will be got over, and the net result should be a very much better understanding between the two great English-speaking nations of the world.

That troublesome problem, Anzac Day, has again been occupying the attention of the Arbitration Court, which must he quite tired of the endless inconsistencies involved in its celebration. Those who arc too busy to go deeply into the meaning of the Court’s latest pronouncement may take it that, in effect, the decision in the Typographical Award was that where Anzac Day falls on a Sunday, it shall not involve any variation in the agreement by which night-workers regard their ordinary Sunday as starting at noon on Saturday and ending at noon on Sunday, and are paid double rates for work done during those hours alone. As for the gasworkers, the Court has laid it down that if they do no work on Anzac Day when it falls on a Sunday they cannot be paid anything in respect of the holiday, seeing that it does not involve them in any reduction of their ordinary weekly wage. These decisions are quite fair, because they do not penalise the workers in any way; but it is opportune to point out, whenever this subject crops up, that Anzac Day, whenever it falls on a week-day, involves the loss of a day’s wages to all hourly workers—that is to say, to the poorer paid workers in the community. This is the Court’s ruling, and Parliament has not had the courage to end the anomaly. It resists the agitation that Anzac Day should be observed on the nearest Sunday, but ignores the claims of the large body of workers who lose a day’s wages in celebrating the anniversary on the exact date.