News readers

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32604, 12 May 1971, Page 16

News readers

Sir,—it is less than three weeks since, in the report of a panel debate on the teaching of reading, you quoted a training college lecturer’s remark, “Reading orally in the classroom as a method of teaching reading is practised less today, thank goodness." If this is so, it is most regrettable, as it is only when parents and teachers listen to oral reading that mispronunciations and the accenting of wrong syllables can be detected and corrected. We now have among us not onlymany young parents who are barely literate and speak an odd brand of English but also young teachers who often give audible proof of their lack of practice in oral reading and of knowledge of phonetics. My prize goes to that teacher who, on a television programme, managed to mispronounce mispronunciation. What hope have our

young announcers got?— Yours, etc., I F W May 11, 1971. Labelling of goods Sir,—l was interested to read the reports in "The Press'* of April 29 and 30 regarding the trader who relabelled his tua-tua soup as “toheroa” because his product “had not sold well,” and the statement by an official of the Department of Industries and Commerce that the department had no jurisdiction over the labelling of food, drugs, and medical devices. Perhaps a spokesman for the department would comment on the relevance of the Merchandise Marks Act, 1954, in this case Section 9(l)(d) of the act deals with the application of a false trade description to goods, and Section 2 defines “goods” as anything subject of trade, manufacture, or merchandise. Section 2 also mentions that the Minister referred to in the act means the Minister of Industries and Commerce.—Yours, etc., DJLP.

April 30, 1971. [The Secretary of Industries and Commerce (Mr M. J. Moriarty) replies: “The departmental officer who was mentioned in the newspaper report had indicated that the labelling of foodstuffs came under the Health Department in terms of the Food and Drugs legislation, and not under the Consumer Information Act administered by the Industries and Commerce Department The Merchandise Marks Act could have some application to false labelling of food, but generally the position is more adequately covered by the revised Food and Drug legislation, which in fact is being used by the Health Department to investigate the case in question.”]