“Starving Children”

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31763, 21 August 1968, Page 12

“Starving Children”

Sir, —What a classic example of misunderstanding through incomplete reporting is shown in Mr Bartrum’s patriotically defensive letter to the “Western Australian," and how ridiculous both his and “Anti-Hypocrite’s” letters appear when compared with the original report, which stated only that “some” children in Wanganui were searching rubbish-tins for food. Whether this assumed wider implication between here and Australia, or between the taxi-driver and Mr Bartrum—in deference to the high standards of world news reporting, I diplomatically favour the latter—it is obvious that neither Mr Bartrum nor “Anti-Hypocrite” has bothered to check the facts, resulting in two opposing distorted and generalised accounts of the conditions in

which New Zealand children live. “Anti - Hypocrite’s” triumphantly produced “fact,” known by “every Christchurch citizen” except, apparently, myself, of the family whose “kids don’t get breakfast until 2 p.m.,” reduces his already questionable letter to the farcical.— Yours, etc., HELEN M. GARDNER. August 20, 1968.