CRITICISM OF NEWSPAPERS

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28447, 29 November 1957, Page 16

CRITICISM OF NEWSPAPERS

Mr R. M. Macfarlane’s

Complaint

“It is obvious that the newspapers and the National Party are getting hysterical, said Mr R. M. Macfarlane, Labour Party candidate for Christchurch Central. to an audience of about 40 in the Knox Hall last evening. Mr N. G. Pickering, candidate for St. Albans, also spoke. Newspapers in New Zealand, with two exceptions, were opposed to the Labour party, and had been hostile for years, said Mr Macfarlane. He criticised the editor of “The Press” for writing footnotes to letters praising the Government, especially a note in reply to what he called “one of the most filthy and scurrilous letters ever printed in a newspaper in New Zealand.” The letter had dealt with a message Mr Nash was said to have sent to Soviet Russia on the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution. “The implication of the footnote was that Mr Nash is in sympathy with the Bolshevik revolution and the Communist Party,” he said. "Nothing could be further from the truth. The congratulations were sent in the normal course of affairs; after all, Mr Holyoake visited Russia and was photographed with a wreath of flowers around his neck, and no-one called him a Communist.”

The newspapers and the National Party dared not attack what the Labour Party was putting before the people, he said. They dared not criticise the ideas; they only had the perpetual cry of “Where is the money coming from?” “They said the same when Social Security was introduced, and we found the money there; we will get it from the same sources this time,” said Mr Macfarlane.

“Yes, from the taxpayer,” said an interjector.

“This is a straight fight between Labour and National; Social Credit will not get one member into Parliament,” said Mr Macfarlane.

LThe letter that Mr Nash was “said to have sent” (Mr Macfarlane’s phrase) was in fact sent. The footnote to the correspondent’s letter fairly answered the writer’s question and, in fairness to Mr Nash, added Mr Nash’s own explanation to the House of Representatives that the message was sent in accordance with long-established diplomatic practice.—Ed., “The Press.”]