WIRELESS CRITICS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 208, 3 September 1927, Page 10

WIRELESS CRITICS.

ANSWER TO LABOUR . ' MEMBERS. I * — 3 MB. A. m. EAMTIIV DEFEVCE. < i < OUT-OF-DATE ADVISORY BOARD. 1 i (By Telesra.pt. — Parliamentary Reporter.) ; WELLINGTON, this day. ] Steadily continued criticism of the 1 Radio Broadcasting Company by Labour members pi . Parliament has provoked * reply from Mr. A R. Harris, general manager of the company, who declared to your correspondent that'the statements of Mr. £. Howard in the House of Representatives on Tuesday were so incorrect as to leave a wrong impression upon the minds of listeners. In view of the partisan nature of repeated statements being made by Labour members it was doe to the outside public to give" the facta. Mr. Howard had sought to convey the impression that the company had been wrong in denying the statement made originally by the Hon. D. Buddo ' in relation to fees and copyright when wireless sets were installed in country halls. "Our reply to that," Mr. Harris stated, " is that the company is not concerned with the copyright issue, once our programmes are pot on the air, nor with the amount .of fees, imposed for sets' installed in such circumstances. Mr, Howard is qtfltc beside the point in the statement that he now makes. The company has had nothing whatever to do with the 1 regulations just issued by the -Post and Telegraph Department. Their issue in >no way affects the accuracy of our original correction of Mr. Buddo's state--1 ment. I notice Mr. Howard suggests ia comparing the broadcasting service with ' the Post and Telegraph Department that if the latter is not a commercial success r then the-Consolidated Fund bears the r loss. Mr. Howard might have gone fur- | ther and completed his analogy by sayling that broadcasting' was on a very [ different bans because if the broadcast-

ing service vu ran at a km that loss would be borne by the Broadcasting Company, not by listener* or general taxpayers. Mr. Howard's statement that the' Department has power to levywhat are reaHv rates and taxes upon users of the mike-fa- absolutely incorrect. .The company has no such power. Moribund Wireless Board. la. connection with the advocacy of the Advisory Board," said Mr. Harris, "it is interesting to recall the circumstances under which that board was first constituted. It came'into existence before the Broadcasting Company was ineorpor-, ated, and at a time ma a former syndicate waa negotiating with the Govern- . ment for a tea years'-tenure,- which the Government did not see its way to grant.