REPORTS OF TOUR

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27274, 15 February 1954, Page 9

REPORTS OF TOUR

BRITISH NEWSPAPERS CRITICISED LONDON. February 12. The influential weekly, the “Economist,” suggested today that before the Royal tour of Australia ends “there may be time for the British newspapers to put right one matter that went badly wrong in New Zealand.’’ The article, headed “Aboriginals in Fleet street,” attacked some sections of the London newspapers for their handling of the. reports on the Royal tour of New Zealand. The “Economist” says: “In New Zealand the Queen’s otherwise triumphal progress was marred by something for which neither Royalty nor Antipodean affection can be blamed. The fault lay with certain London newspapers—and curiously enough most of all with those that cry the loudest their belief in the Commonwealth. "Distinguished New Zealand editors complain that some Fleet street correspondents’ comments on the tour were .pervaded with that irritating condenscension that, has so often made the Englishman’s path in the Commonwealth needlessly difficult. “One—a woman—smugly revealed that she had always thought the Maoris lived in trees, and she was not the only correspondent to parade such patronising and naive ignorance. “New Zealanders are accustomed, it is true, to solid local newspapers, and they can hardly appreciate the fierce competitive urges that drive the big national dailies to smother the facts with a sickly cream of ‘human interest,’ ” said the newspaper. The “Economist” said: “But many of them who know Britain will deny that their countrymen are noticeably more touchy than, say, Londoners, who. they believe, would react just as sharply if visiting New Zealanders publicly jibed at their own sacred cows. “They appreciate that Fleet street men were writing for readers at home, but they say that the more controversial remarks were bound to be widely reprinted in the Dominion. “Underlying the controversy is the impression, now common in New Zealand, that the interest of several London newspapers in the Commonwealth is strictly limited to special ‘angles.’ and that they should not wait for Royal tours before sending their star writers to explore the outer marches. “Several correspondents covering the tour have expressed the hope that they could return at leisure and really learn something about New Zealand. It might )pay their employers to help them to do so.”