H.—22

Since the approval of this budget by a conference of patriotic bodies in November last the Government has decided to make a grant of £337,000, which is the estimated cost of supplying prisoners of war food parcels and £3,500 for censoring food parcels. This will reduce the sum budgeted for, to £789,000. The work of the National Patriotic Fund Board is to provide comforts and amenities for men'and women on active service overseas and in camps in New Zealand, and the work of Provincial Patriotic Councils is to provide sports gear for men in camps in New Zealand, woollen goods for men in New Zealand and overseas (through the Board), quarterly gift parcels, hospitality services while men are on leave, and to provide welfare on the return of men to New Zealand after service overseas. The administration expenses of the Board for the year ended 30th September, 1942, were 2s. Bd. per cent, of receipts which compares favourably with the New South Wales Division of the Australian Comforts Fund which was £2 7s. 7d. per cent. This comparison may be offset to some extent by the fact that the salaries and office expenses of the New Zealand National Patriotic Fund Board are paid by the Government, whereas in New South Wales these charges are presumably made against patriotic funds. The satisfactory results achieved again justify the wisdom of co-ordinating war comforts work within the framework of the organization laid down by the Patriotic Purposes Emergency Regulations 1939. B. Patriotic Raffles. One hundred and fifteen licenses to raffle gifts of real or personal property for patriotic purposes were issued. Returns to haiid indicate that the gross proceeds from licenses issued by the Department were approximately £18,000 and the net return £17,500. X. CINEMATOGRAPH. THEATRES. A. Film Censorship. During the year, 1,668 films of all classes, totalling 4,421,510 ft., were examined. Of this number, 3 were rejected outright, 3 were deferred for the time being as unsuitable for exhibition owing to the war situation, 125 were passed subject to excisions, 117 were passed with recommendations that they were more suitable for adult audiences, and 24 were passed with the caution that they were not suitable for children. No appeals were lodged in the case of the 3 films rejected. An analysis of the work shows :—

Quota Films : The countries of origin of the quota or feature films examined wore as follows : Great Britain, 28 ; Australia, 1 ; India, 1; Russia, 8 ; United States of America, 407. Rejections : Of the 3 films rejected, one was a quota or long picture, made in Great Britain, and the other short " featurettes " made in the U.S.A. General Remarks : During the year under review, as compared with the previous year, the number of rejections was 3, as against 2 ; the number of films requiring amendment was 125, as against 99 ; the number of films recommended as more suitable for adults was 125, as against 172 ; the number considered to be definitely unsuitable for young people was 24, as compared with 17 in the previous year. Propaganda films were, of course, much in evidence, both from Great Britain and the U.S.A., particularly since America's entry into the World War. Propaganda also forms a strong element in the feature films made by both nations for public entertainment. It was also noted that many of the films recently received from the U.S.A. present stories of Japanese espionage activities in that country prior to the attack on Manila. Minor inaccuracies in one or two American short feature subjects dealing with New Zealand's war effort were eliminated. There was a considerable increase in the number of miniature films submitted during the year, compared with the previous year's total; over 90 being examined. These were in the main subjects dealing with health and education, with also copies of short " featurettes " that had been examined previously. B. Licensing of Cinematograph Operators. Two hundred and sixty-six new applications for provisional and assistant operators' licenses were considered, as compared with 251 new applications for the previous year. Two hundred and forty-one provisional and grade licenses were is,, tied, and 183 new assistant operators' licenses were issued. This made a total of 1,022 operators and 516 assistant operators licensed since the coming into force of the regulations in 1938. A further development of the Department's activities in connection with the licensing of operators has been the gazetting of emergency regulations to provide for the licensing of male and female trainee operators after periods of intensive training and exhaustive examination. This development has been necessary to maintain the licensing system and at the same time overcome the difficulties which have arisen owing to the present shortage of man-power. C. Exhibitors and other Licenses. The following licenses under the Cinematograph Films Act were issued for the year ended 30th September, 1942 : Exhibitors, 452 ; circuit exhibitors, 32 ; renters, 15 ; storage, 18 ; miscellaneous, 34.

4

Quota or Long Films. Non-quota or Short Kims. Origin. Number. Longth. Number. Length. Ft. Ft. British .. . .. .. 29 252,700 432 360,640 Foreign .. .. .. .. 416 3,108,720 791 699,450 Totals .. .. .. 445 3,361,420 1,223 1,060,090