ECONOMY COMMISSION

Feilding Star, Volume 9, Issue 3849, 4 October 1932, Page 7

ECONOMY COMMISSION

On Telegraph Service THOSE PRESS MESSAGES ItGlTjl' TO CRITICISM PART PL A V El) BY PAPERS (Per Press Association.) Wellington, Oft. 3. Tin; following statement regarding thd references to the cost of press messages contained in the report of the National Exjtenditure Commission was made to-day by the Chairman of the United Press Association, Sir Cecil Leys : The statement of the National Expenditure Commission that press telegrams cost the State £53,000 per year will not bear examination. It is accepted that a telegraphic service is essential. In this country press messages provide a medium that prevents this need of commerce and social life from being an insupportable burden on the community. These messages are a steady source of revenue that carry overhead charges which could not lie greatly reduced were they suddenly to disappear. In from cases out of live a proses message is carried over lines to a ««ozen ■different sources and brings to the Post and Telegraph lieipartment 18s Tier 100 words where !u private message with all its difficulties of delivery realises 8s 4d per 100 words. Tile press is not lightly charged. The rate is- three times the pre-war rate and approximately three times that charged for a similar service to the United Kingdom.I That a knowledge of the affairs of jthe country and its Government should Ik- the property of the people goes without; saying an.l (lie only medium through which this information can be disseminated is the press. As regard the 1 mix-rial wireless service, of which the Commission . suggests the press should pay hajf the initial cost, this is an Empire publicity that would fail in its obpect and inevitably be discontinued were it hot that it is enable 1 to reach the public through the newspapers which, besides a substantial contribution to the cost, pay all the land charges entailed in is dissemination. The criticism or the Com-' mission in this matter is based on entirely wrong premises and is untenable.