PRESS AND PARLIAMENT.

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 July 1918, Page 2

PRESS AND PARLIAMENT.

LORD BURNHAM’S VIEW. Lord Rhondda, avlio avus unable to attend the annual dinner of the Newspaper Press Fund in London on May lUth, sent 1000 guineas, saying : “The willing compliance of tlie public iu the numerous) and oftentimes irritating orders that the Food Ministry have found it necessary to' impose must be largely attributed to the patriotic co-opera-tion of the Press.” Lord Burnham, presiding, said Lord Rhondda, had done much to improve the health of the people—(laughter)—and had enabled many of the fashionable doctors of London to go to the front Avith a clear conscience. On their return theyAvould find their patients in a far better state of preservation than might have been expcced. (Laughter.) In the fiery furnace of this awful Avar our institutions had been twisted out of recognition. None had stood and Avoid'd, stand the cruel test so Avell as the newspaper press, said Lord Burnham. He regretted ho could not say that. Parliament had to any large extent increased its hold on the affections and respect of the people. At the same time it had no doubt emphasised Avhat he believed to be the fact that during these times the iieAv.spa.per press had given the fullest and freest expression to public opinion. .Some people might look on government by the Press as national degradation, but iu the de-A-elopmeut of Democracy it was the boumlcu duty of the neAVspapcr press to help the government of the people. Surely Avhen avo Avere extending tlie bounds of our suffrage it avusi impossible to reach the out- ■ lying millions of the people except through the Press. Ho did not know Avhat tlie' kincmatograph might become in the course of time, but for fashioning the opinion of tho day it Avas through the newspaper press that Democracy must carry on its own government. Donations amounting to over £BSOO wore announced, being nearly ,£3OO in excess of the previous high record. Lord Rhondda, in addition to. his own cheque, collected .£3OOO from his personal friends. Among those who contributed 100 guineas Were Lord Burnham, Lord Nortbcliffc, Sir Thomas Mackenzie, Sir Thomas Lipton, Sir Robert Kindersley, Sir George Riddell, and Sir Charles Bathurst.