BROADCASTING BOTHER

Northern Advocate, 17 September 1927, Page 9

BROADCASTING BOTHER

THE £15,000 LOAN ATTACK BY THE OPPOSITION. ULTERIOR MOTIVES ALLEGED. WELLINGTON, This Day. (From Our Parliamentary Special.) A further attack on the Broadcasting administration in the Dominion was made by the Opposition in the House yesterday. Mr J. A. Lee said he intended to give the Hous3 an opportunity of expressing its approval, or disapproval, of the action of the Government in making a present to the Broadcasting Company. He moved: "That the vote of the Post and Telegraph Department should be reduced by £15,000, the amount of the loan. Mr D. G.. Sullivan also show-ed somr interest in the loan and said he would like to know who had advised the Government as to the value of the security. The Postmaster-General (the Hon. W. Nosworthy): My poor old mortgage! ■Sir Joseph Ward said the Government ought, to admit that a mistake had been made in granting a loan to the company. It was an unheard of departure for the Post and Telegraph Department to make suck an advance, without the . authority of Parliament, It was the first time, he had heard of the Post and Telegraph Department being a lending concern. "The Minister has been quite candid about this matter,” said. Mr 6. W. Forbes, "blit he -has left the impression that there is a ‘nigger in the wrood pile’ somewhere.” Mr Forbes suggested that'the Government might well establish a board to control broadcasting in New Zealand. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr H. E Holland) said that by not taking over broadcasting as a public utility, the Government was throwing away revenue. The loan made to the company was a very questionable one. In Queensland, where the service was State-owned, all sections of the community were permitted to make use of radio for the purposes of addressing the public, but in New Zealand only members of the Reform Party w r ere permitted to make use of broadcasting. .■ Mr Holland complained that a speech had been made over the wireless in favour of the Singapore base, arid that the "Radio Record,” in reporting the speech, had followed the practice of some daily in printing iri black type those portions of the speech which were favourable to the base.

Mr E. J, Howard protested against thfe'’heavy fees charged in respect to portable sets. It would appear that some one in the Department was out. to hinder the popularity , of wireless. An advisory board should b? set up to help the Department in administering the service. Radio listeners had a right to such a board, because they “paid the piper.” In the last two months the wireless broadcasting service had improved, but with an advisory board it could be made better still.

Mr M J. said the Post Office appeared to bv turning itself into a State lending department, but it was lending to its competitors. There was divided control, the radio broadcasting being run by a private company. <• They were building up what every one considered to be a public service, but, when they tried to bring that service under public control, they would have to incur an expenditure of public'funds. In the backblocks complaint was made that insufficient news was given over the wireless.

Mr W. A. Veitch. said that the House had been given no satisfactory reason why the Broadcasting Company had been singled out for favourable ■consideration. It would not be very long before the company became worth £1,000,000 and the Government would be faced either with the prospect of confiscating the'whole concern or paying the price demanded. He was sure the Minister would not stand for a policy of confiscation. The broadcasting service had been established on bad principles and one wondered what the position of the Dominion would have been today if the telephone and telegraph services had been Started in the same way. The Hon. W. Nosworthy stated that no one, other than those associated with the-present company, would undertake broadcasting and that was why the £15,000 had been lent to them, but only on condition that the Government could take the Wellington station over at valuation. No one had attempted to put broadcasting on as sound a basis as he, but all that he had received "was criticisms. In -i previous debate •it had almost been asked: What had he got out of it? Labour Members: Who made that

suggestion? Mr P. Fraser: You got more than yon liked out of it. The Minister repeated his previous declarations that there was good security for the £15,000 loan. There was no "nigger in the wood pile." A Royal Commission, which had, just reported in Australia,-had recommended the adoption of a like course to that which the New Zealand Government had -already decided to follow in regard to broadcasting. If members were not satisfied, let them reduce the Post vaml Telegraph vote and turn the Government out. Mr’ Holland: But the Government would not go out if we carried it. "You try me, U replied Mr Nosworthy, amidst laughter.