The Evening Star SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 1937, MR SCRSMGEOUR.

Evening Star, Issue 22631, 24 April 1937, Page 14

The Evening Star SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 1937, MR SCRSMGEOUR.

In October last, in the House, Mr Hargest, M.P., asked the Minister in charge of Broadcasting, by an urgent question, whether applications were invited by public advertisement for the position of .Controller of the Commercial Broadcasting Service. If not. he cvished to know if the appointment of the Rev. Mr Scrimgeour to that position was made after consultation with and approval of the Public Service Commissioners. Mr Scrimgeour had been appointed at a salary of £SOO per annum, plus 7J per cent, commission, and the inquirer pointed out that, if the advertising revenue from the tour commercial broadcasting stations should aggregate £IOO.OOO per annum, those terms would mean a reward for services of approximately £B,OOO a year. He asked “ on what grounds does the Minister in Charge of Broadcasting justify a remuneration so greatly in excess of that given to the administrative heads of the State Departments, who control services involving far greater responsibilities than can possibly attach to the service of commercial broadcasting? The Prime Minister replied that the position was not advertised. The whole matter of staffing the service, including this appointment, had been discussed with the Public Service Commissioners. (He did not say that it had been approved by them.) How the terms would work out was still unknown, but in three months a report would be made to him and the amount might then be lowered. That has now been done, and the salary of Mr Scrimgeour has been dxed for the future at £1,500 a year, without commission—the same salary as is received by the Director of Broadcasting. But the remuneration of the controller and the circumstances of his appointment and the rules that may be expected to govern his performance of duties are still matters of keen interest and perturbed inquiry, and, in the absence of explanations from Ministers, which they seem disinclined to give, may be expected to be so for a long time to come.

The council of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, has now protested to the Government against the appointment of Mr Sorimgeour to such an enviable post. without calling for applications as wrong in principle, and chat judgment must be generally endorsed. One Labour member (Mr Hultquist) has made bold to defend the principle, on the ground that be-, fore the appointment was made “ we [presumably the Labour Party s caucus] had already decided that Mr Scrimgeour was the man for the job. Why he should have been considered as “ the man for the job ” Mr Hultquist apparently did not say; he could ,iave had no experience of commercial broadcasting in Newi>, Zealand. Mr [largest has suggested that what Mr ’crimgeour was paid was the price of iiis services to the Government, beVore ever it was a Government, and ,'ew have doubted that those were real ervices. The circumstances in which the station, IZB, associated with the friendly Road, for which Mr Scrim;eour gave addresses, was jammed by a Government official during the last General Election campaign on the ground that its broadcasts were political propaganda, thereby contravening the regulations, are still fresh in the public memory The jamming turned many votes in the direction of Labour if the broadcasts did not. The IZB Radio Club, in conjunction with >ther similar clubs, was; then issuing lamphlets m support of a greater rcedom for wireless, which could only do maintained by allowing the B stations a source of revenue such as might be afforded by advertising. Electors were plainly advised to vote for the Labour Party as the only party that would give satisfactory . assurances of agreement with this and with associated views.

The B stations as such have had ittlo satisfaction from the sequel to chose activities. Mr Scrimgeonr’s appointment, without competition, to what must appear to be, even now, when' his modified remuneration is made the same as that of the Director of Broadcasting, an extraordinarily well paid for post, is’ justified on the ground that "wo had already decided that he was the man for the job.” Whether Labour Ministers are still of that opinion, since the use made by Mr Scrimgeour of his Civil Service position in his tirade against the Press of a few weeks ago, has not been revealed. Confirmation of his appointment by the new terms made for it might suggest an affirmative answer. To-day’s statement by the Acting Prime Minister (Hon. P. Fraser), in which he ridicules the suggestion of any intention on the part of the Government to muzzle the Press, and explains that Mr Scrirngeour’s diatribe was delivered by him without the consent, knowledge, or approval of the Government, is to be welcomed so far as it goes, but it does not go all the way. It would appear that, if the posts of Civil servant and of Christian minister should often bo combined by Mr Scrimgeour as they were upon this recent occasion, the question of controlling this controller may yet make some bad moments for the Government.