BROADCASTING POLICY

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22274, 13 December 1937, Page 8

BROADCASTING POLICY

GOVERNMENT’S ACTIONS CRITICISED MR BROADFOOT DEFINES CONTROVERSY The broadcasting policy of the Government, especially in its attitude to what was allowed over the air,- and what forbidden, was criticised strongly by Mr W. J. Broadfoot, M.P., in an address to Christchurch supporters of the National Party on Saturday. The Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Adam Hamilton, who was the principal speaker, also referred to the broadcasting of the sittings of the House of Representatives, stating that there was little good from the broadcasting of the Committee stages of a bill, and that the plan had not presented Parliament altogether in the way that had been expected. A complaint had been made about a broadcast that had been considered derogatory to the British Empire, said Mr Broadfoot. A speaker had said that the public heard a lot about bombs in China but very little about the bombing ofpwomen and children on the North-west Frontier of India. That, Mr Broadfoot claimed, was a deliberate insult to the British people, who were looking after that frontier to protect the welfare of 200,000,000 British subjects. But the Minister for Education, the Hon. Peter Fraser, had said, “We do not like interfering with controversial subjects.” If that was so, said Mr Broadfoot, why was the Moderator of the Presbyterian Assembly forbidden to broadcast on “Social Justice,” and why was the Rev. Father Crowe not permitted to broadcast another sermon on Communism? The reason was that controversy of that kind did not suit the Government. “When an argument favours the Government it is excellent to broadcast it, but when if is unfavourable, it must be put down with a firm foot,” continued Mr Broadfoot. Speeches from the House In his address Mr Hamilton referred to the broadcasting of the proceedings of the House of Representatives. He did not know that it had represented the work of Parliament in an altogether favourable light. On certain occasions broadcasting might be excellent, but he could see little in favour, for instance, of a broadcast of the Committee stages of a bill, where all the discussion was in question and answer form.

Mr Broadfoot on the same subject said that the Government had found broadcasting of Parliament a twoedged sword. The Opposition was using it every bit as much as the Government, as the public could know from the last session.

effect, and an offer of £IOO,OOO as final settlement made by the National Government in 1935 was refused by the Ngaitahu Trust Board. The decision to hold the coming conference in Wellington was announced last month by Mr B. T. Tirikatene, member of Parliament for Southern Maori. Plans for the use of the money were laid as far back as 1919, when Mr Uru insisted that a certain sum should be left untouched for the benefit of future members of the tribe. It was proposed that only the interest on the £354,000, estimated to amount to £12,000 yearly, should be spent. Out of this the claims of the beneficiaries were to be met, and the rest was to be applied to educational and hospital purposes under the administration of a trust board controlled by the Native Minister. . . . „ . ...