OVER THE AIR

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 24, 27 July 1929, Page 10

OVER THE AIR

RADIO LICENCE FEES

IS FULL VALUE GIVEN?

B CLASS STATIONS

The question of radio broadcasting was raised in the House of Representatives yesterday aftornoon by Mr. E. J. Howard (Christchurch South). Both Mr: Howard and the Postmaster-Gen-eral (the Hon. J. B. Donald) when replying, urged members to visit the radio exhibition at the Town Hall so that they might gain some insight into the progress of radio.

At the outset of his remarks, Mr. Howard said that ho did not wish to be too hard on the Postmaster-General, who was uew to the office, but he seemed tv be the "rubber stamp" of the Department in the same way as his predecessor because letters sent in to him came back with the same old stereotyped reply.

. Mr. Howard said that there were 44,000 licensed listeners in the Domin ion, the amount of the fees running into £11,000. He wanted to ask what service the Department was giving in return. The State was rendering no service except a few clerks to register the licenses and a few policemen to threaten on behalf of the Broadcasting Company. He considered that the State was handicapping local amateurs and thereby preventing the development of wireless improvements in New Zealand. It %vas his contention that wireless telephonic.apparatus should bo installed in various parts of the Dominion in order to be on hand in caso .of the ordinary telegraphic services breaking down. Costly wireless sets were being imported because the P. and T. Department was exercising a stranglehold over wireless development iri the Dominion. The Minister of Education was seeking to give the children an agricultural bias, but in his position of "head schoolmaster," he should encourage the children to acquire a scientific bias, which ■was more important than tho agricultural, or "turnip bias." The Department should allow more scope for amateurs to render national service in times of need. The fellow who went home i'rom work arid delved into the new science of wireless would be the one who could render national service if an emergency arose. He hoped that no impediment would be placed in the way of children using*wireless.

Tho Eev. Clydo Carr (Timaru) said he hoped the Department would review tho decision against the payment of half-yearly license fees. Some families could not pay the 30s in one lump sum. Quarterly payments would bo preferable. He supported what Mr. Howard had said about encouraging the use of radio by tho young people. The policy of the Department seemed to be to discourage tho B class stations, which meant that backblocks settlers who could afford nothing better than crystal sets could not enjoy the advantage of listening to ■ the A class atations. He would like to know whether the Government had extended the Radio Broadcasting Company's monopoly for a further three and a half years, and would welcome information regarding the payment of patent rights, and why the B class stations were discouraged. It seemed as if tho Radio Company enjoyed partial treatment by the Department. DEPARTMENT MAKING A LOSS. The Postmaster-General (the Hon. J. B. Donald) said ho was very pleased indeed that tho young peoplo had such a champion as Mr. Howard. It had .boon- said that tho Department was making a good thing out of radio. He did not have tho completo figures in front of him, but as far as. his memory served him, he believed the Department was losing money over radio. Mr. Howard: "What in? What arc they doing? Great Scott!" Mr. Donald: "The Department is losing money over tho radio business." Mi-. A. M. Samuel (Thames): "They . ought to get a new manager." The Postmaster-General said that he had no desire whatever to bo n stumbling block,in tho way of progress in radio so far as either old or young people were concerned. If Mr. Howard would call at his oflico and make suggestions they would receive the best consideration. "Ho will then find that I am not the rubber stamp ho thinks I am," said Mr. Donald. Mr. Donald said he fully recognised that there was a certain amount of dissatisfaction with the broadcasting programmes. That was only to bo expected, as it would be a very hard matter indeed to please everybody in New Zealand. Personally, he was of opinion that New Zealand was served reasonably well in connection with the programmes. He did not suggest that there could not be an improvement. That improvement would without doubt take place as time went on. Considering that tho company had to supply four major stations, ho thought that it "was doing fairly well.

With regard to the B class stations, he wished to say that no stumbling block was put in tho way of those stations. All that was asked was that they should bo properly equipped, did not interfere with the stations already in existence, and complied with the regulations. Tho people running the B class stations had recently asked that they should bo allowed to do a certain amount of advertising. That matter was being gone into and when the Secretary of tho Department (Mr. M'Namara) returned from the Old Country it would be looked into further. Mr. R. Semplo (Wellington East): "What are you going to -■ do with the fees?" Mr. Donald: "Oh, we'll go into that question." NEWS AT SEA. Mr. W. D. Lysnar (Gisborne) referred to the scarcity of news received over the air by passengers on overseas steamers. During his recent trip he had heard very little New Zealand news, but they had heard plenty of American news even.about prize poodledogs going to England to tako part in shows. (Laughter.) Even in England, very little New Zealand news was disseminated, a fact that was probably due to tho righ rato of telegraph charges. The Government should tako tho matter up and endeavour to secure tho lowest possible cable rate;