UNITED PUBLICITY

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 34, 8 August 1925, Page 6

UNITED PUBLICITY

The principles of united action and joint responsibility in publicity are thoroughly sound, and must be applied before any great advance can be made. As we have previously pointed out, publicity brings business to many private concerns — shipping companies, motor transport companies, and hotels and accommodation houses. In so far as these undertakings prosper they improve the business also of the merchants and others who supply their needs. To advertise, and thus to attract more business, is a wise policy; but the cost of publicity must be shared by the enterprises which will benefit. If these enterprises are permitted to escape payment they will not be so careful to keep the business as if they themselves had borne part of the cost of bringing it. Government nursing is not advisable, and it breeds bad habits. We have had experience in New Zealand that where most has been done to attract tourists there has always been the most insistent demand for more. The Publicity Conference has endorsed this principle of joint responsibility for the cost of publicity, and has proposed that when it is accepted there shall be united control We heartily approve the general recommendations. There are, however, some details of application which T/e believe call for reconsideration or justification. For example, a board of 21 members appears far too unwieldy. Then, it is suggested that the Government nominees should include representatives of Chambers of Commerce, Progress Leagues, and Acclimatisation Societies. Yet it is not proposed to demand a contribution from these bodies. The Government, it seems, is to pay their footing.. If the contributory principle is applied, and we believe it must be, it must be applied all round. These, however, are matters of detail which can readily be settled if the' interests affected accept the broad plan of co-operation and co-ordination.