"Too Much Publicity."

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20906, 13 July 1933, Page 8

"Too Much Publicity."

Mrs A. I. Fraer is reported to have expressed the opinion at a meeting of the Metropolitan Relief Association on Tuesday that the association should not publish so much about what it was doing to relieve distress. She complained that owing to the publicity being given to the Christchurch Business Men's Appeal, Christchurch was drawing applicants for relief from other centres. While not opposing Mrs Fraer's very reasonable desire that money raised in Christchurch should be expended on the relief of distress among genuine residents of this city, the converse side to the argument may be indicated. Mrs Fraer and those who think with her, may be reminded, for instance, that without publicity any appeals made to the generosity of citizens would have very little chance of success. Moreover, citizens desire to know and are entitled to know what is being done with the money that they compulsorily and voluntarily subscribe for unemployment relief; and the tendency in this regard has been more in the direction of secrecy than publicity. We have had occasion before this to complain about unemployment matters being discussed behind closed doors and we feel that the more the public knows about what is be-,

ing done with public money, the more ready it will be to assist unemployment relief. In any event it is not likely that the numbers of local unemployed will be very considerably augmented by an influx of outsiders, and it should not be very difficult to keep a check on those who are not genuine residents of Christchurch.