Bay Of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, OCT. 19, 1949 APPEAL FOR ORPHANS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 53, 19 October 1949, Page 4

Bay Of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, OCT. 19, 1949

APPEAL FOR ORPHANS

On Friday of this week Whakatane, in common with most other centres in the province, will be holding the annual appeal for orphanges under the control of the Auckland Orphanages United Council. That Council represents the Anglican orphan home and children’s homes., Roman Catholic orphanges. Baptist children’s home, North Auckland Protestant orphange, Presbyterian Social Services Association, Methodist Children’s homes and Salvation Army Children’s hornds. Last year £10,234 was collect ed and distributed, the amounts sh,ared out being calculated at £l4 10s per capita on the average number of children in each home for the year ended July 31, 1948. Anyone with a family to keep will realise that, handsome though the total collected was, £l4 10s represented only a small proportion of the actual maintenance cost of each child, and had to be heavily augmented from other sources.

According to the publicity issued by the Council, 2/6 will maintain a child for one day. It looks optimistic to a family man, but is probably calculated on bulk buying and taking into account . assistance of the sort tlje average family cannot expect. However, if everyone in the province gave only 2/6 on Friday, that would maintain a lot of children for a lot of days, children who have no breadwinners to earn theirdiving for them until they are ready to earn their own.

There may be some who honestly cannot afford to make that small contribution. We realise taxation is high. We also realise these children would probably consider themselves fortunate to be members of families with incomes sufficiently large to become liable to heavy taxation. And what if taxation and the cost of living are high? Is it not worth he sacrifice of a bottle of beer, a ticket to the pictures, a “fluLer” on the “books”, two cups of tea in town, a few ice creams or milk shakes to help an orphan child who needs help? There will be satisfaction in knowing that, at the cost of a sacrifice that need not hurt, one has laid even a small stepping stone for hopeful young feet to tread to a healthy life and useful citizenship. Whakatane’s reputation for generosity in such matters stands high. Local sponsors of the appeal trust that on this occasion it will be enhanced. LIBEL LAW REFORM

The tendency during the present century in interpreting the British law of libel had been to make a defendant’s position unduly difficult and to encourage

the “gold-digging litigant,” said Sir Valentine Holmes, K.C., a member of the Porter Committee on the law of defamation, addressing the Institute of Journalists. Sir Valentine said that when the law was reformed, as he hoped it would be, newspapers and writers should do their best to reverse this tendency. At the same time he hoped they would not pay too little attention to the public feeling—which he shared—that an individual’s reputation was valuable and should not be lightly impugned. The way the law in Britain stands at present (and our won law is modelled closely to it) honest comment on certain matters of public interest is unduly dangerous for those whose duty it is to make that comment. Fair reporting on matters on which the public has a right to be informed is often curtailed because newspapers dare not say as much as they often feel they should. No one, least of all a responsible journalist, would want to find himself in the position of deliberately besmirching an honest citizen’s character . but, to quote Sir Valentine again, “A fair balance should be struck between the right of the individual to have his reputation protected and the interests of the community at large.” It is to be hoped that the British Government will take a Hi orto clean up what the London Times calls “an untidy and capricious branch of the law,” and that the New Zealand Government will follow suit.