‘CLOTHED IN CRAPE’

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 87, 6 January 1933, Page 8

‘CLOTHED IN CRAPE’

N.Z. Woes Recorded in London NELSON DOCTOR’S VIEWS When the Nelson City Council began an agitation last year to prevent news detrimental to New Zealand from being sent overseas, the letter upon which the council acted was one received from Dr. S. A. Gibbs, of Nelson, who wrote from London. Dr. Gibbs arrived back in New Zealand yesterday with Mrs. Gibbs, and he explained to “The Dominion” what the trouble had been. “I didn’t want them to suggest a censorship,” he said, “but I would like to See that the forwarding of news from this end is placed in the hands of responsible people. /Although one knows that most good news, from a news point of view, is what would generally be called bad news, I think there is enough good news, such as increased gold production, increased gold export, and other things which, if it were sent, would correct the impression gained from bad news only. “Every week you see something in some paper or other casting reflections on New Zealand,” Dr. Gibbs said. “The last thing before we left was a reference to New Zealand youths not being able to qualify for Rhodes Scholar-

ships. There was a headline across the paper—‘No youths in New Zealand fit for Rhodes Scholarships.’ “We have a splendid publicity department in the High Commissioner’s office, with an experienced journalist in charge. All that is required is some organisation at this end to supply him with the right kind of information so that he can get it published. If there is a suggestion of political influence the work could easily be done here by a committee on which the various parties and interests were represented. “When you see how the people in the Old Country are putting up cheerfully with the big sacrifices and limitations of means that have occurred in the last year or two it makes you a bit regretful,” Dr. Gibbs said, “that New Zealand should publish its woes so widely, and that we should have the reputation of being clothed in crape. And while I mention that I might say that the way the British people are facing up to their present hardships forces'one to take pride in the race to which one belongs. It is really marvellous.” Dr. Gibbs and Mrs. Gibbs went Home primarily to see their son in Edinburgh. Ou their round-the-world trip they have been away about 10 months altogether.