SUNDAY NIGHT BROADCASTS

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23086, 31 July 1940, Page 8

SUNDAY NIGHT BROADCASTS

POLITICAL TALKS BY MINISTERS OPPOSITION MEMBERS’ CRITICISM [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, July 30. Sunday night broadcasts from ' station 2ZB and broadcasts by Ministers on Sunday nights were the subject of critical comment by members of the Opposition during the debate on the broadcasting account in the House tonight. The Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser) interjected that Opposition members of the Whr Cabinet had already been invited to broadcast. Mr F. W. Doidge (Opposition, Tauranga) congratulated the" Government on the improvement of the 2ZB Sunday night talks. He said that no longer did the public get the orgy of class hatred it used to hear, and it was grateful. “I would like to ask way a monopoly is given to the gentleman,” Mr Doidge said. He named various speakers who might be given a chance to speak. The public used to hear the member for Grey Lynn from time to time. Mr Fraser: Tastes differ. Government members do Mr Doidge); You are prejudiced. Mr Doidge: Of course 1 am: but I consider we should have a change. Why not get a deeply read man like Father Eccleston or the Rev. Gladstone Hughes? Why does this monopoly go on? What pull has this reverend gentleman got? Mr Doidge also referred to broadcasts by Mihislers,- and asked why Opposition members of the War Cabinet did not broadcast. Mr Fraser: Certainly. Most decidedly. We have already invited them. Mr Doidge: Then at least my getting on my feet has had some result. “Why did the director permit Mr McLagan to have a national hook-up, in which he vilified Mr Chamberlain and his Government?” Mr Doidge asked. “I would not dare, even in this House, to refer to the Blum administration in France in these terms, or if I did the members opposite would have an apoplectic fit.” “Listeners supply the fees, and surely they should have belter talent or Sunday night,” said Mr W. J. Broadfoot (Opposition, Waitomo), when referring to Ministerial broadcasts, “It is strange how the power is abused.” he said. “I think the proppr place for making these statements is in Parliament itself. I do not think Sunday nights should be used by Ministers to give national hook-up talks. Sunday nights should be free from poisonous politics. They are poisonous, because there is no chance to reply.” Mr J, G. Barclay (Government, Marsden) said that the salaries paid by the National Service represented only 12J per cent, of the fees collected. He said the growth of broadcasting in New Zealand was almost a romance, and he congratulated the previous Government for making it a national enterprise. Mr S. G. Holland (Opposition, Christchurch North) compared the salaries paid to the heads of the two broadcasting services with those of other departmental heads. He said that they received considerably more than some other men holding important posts. The Hon. F. Jones, who replied to this part of the debate in the absence of Mr Fraser from the House, said that the Prime Minister had a committee working to arrange short patriotic broadcasts, as it was believed that the service should be used to the utmost in helping the war effort. Replying to criticism that speakers were required to submit their manuscripts before speaking, he said that strict scrutiny was needed. On one occasion a minister of religion had given a clue concerning troop movements.