POLITICS ON THE AIR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 72, 22 September 1943, Page 4

POLITICS ON THE AIR

Arrangements made for broadcasting political addresses during the past few weeks have been far from satisfactory. The public have certainly had a flood of speeches, but it cannot be said that the allocation of time on the air has been on a fair basis. There are difficulties in making a balanced allocation when there are nearly 300 candidates in the field and five recognised groups, but representatives of the Labour Party have the best of the deal, with National second and all others far behind. Now protests have been made by two of the groups against the fact that their representatives are to be given no opportunity of delivering a final message to the electors on Friday night. If final messages are to be given—and apparently it is proposed that both the Prime Minister and the leader of the National Party are to speak—it would be only fair and reasonable to provide representatives of the other groups with an opportunity of finally stating their case. The radio facilities of the Dominion belong to the people of New Zealand as a whole, and, if those facilities are to be used for electioneering purposes, all groups which are seeking the suffrages of the people should have a reasonable opportunity of expressing themselves.