Broadcasting And Industrial Bureaucracy

Northern Advocate, 27 July 1938, Page 3

Broadcasting And Industrial Bureaucracy

Strong condemnation of the methods of bureaucratic control adopted by the present Government in furtherance cf its socialistic policy was expressed by Professor R. M. Algie, organiser to the Auckland Provincial Freedom Association, when speaking at Ruatangata on Monday night. ♦ There were four methods of reaching the minds of the people, said Professor Algie, these being through the medium of the press, the public meeting, radio and the films, and if the people were to form correct judgments j it was essential that they should be given correct information, j “The newspapers of New Zealand j have rendered magnificent service in I this direction,” he continued. “It has, however, become the fashion of the I Labour Party to decry the papers and run them down, working on the minds of the people to accept some kind of censorship. Autocrat of the Air. “Since Labour came into power it has passed an Act which makes it possible for one man to say who shall speak on the air and what he shall talk about,” continued the professor, in dealing with broadcasting. “It is not wise to place this power in the hands of one man, especially when he is a politician. So near election time there is a temptation to use the radio for political purposes.-It is an example of socialism deciding what is best for you in administering a service you have paid for, and also using your* receiving apparatus. “Under present legislation, every speaker can be asked to submit his manuscript for approval. The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church was once asked to do so before speaking over the air. He declined, and therefore did not speak. Thus we were deprived of the privilege of hearing him broadcast. “If the next Government utilises the radio to stqff the people with conservative propaganda it will be just as • bad. Control of broadcasting should be in the hands of a board, presided over by a man as independent as a Supreme Court Judge. Our Judges have nothing to hope and nothing to fear from politicians, and are therefore fearless and independent. Why should our broadcasting director not be fearless and independent also? “The catch lies in the fact that the director is appointed for a term of | three years only, and when a man has • given up a university professorship to take up such a position he does not run the risk of offending the Minister.” Public Works Film, After dealing with labour legislation which gave Ministers supreme

power in the control of picture theatres and exhibition of films, Professor Algie mentioned that the Minister of Public Works had recently had made, from funds of this country, a film showing the progress made in his department since he had assumed office. The film was exhibited with the object of enlisting public sympathy for the return of the same Government to power. Reverting again to radio, Professor Algie remarked: “It is sickening to listen to the amount of Government propaganda being put over the air. The news session from the Prime Minister’s office each night holds him up, not as the first citizen of the land, but as a kind of Santa Claus who gives us all good things, including a bit of news now and again.” “Permission” In industry. Professor Algie reviewed at length the far-reaching effects of the Industrial Efficiency Act, and mentioned several cases in which industries coming within its scope had been subject to unnecessary and objectionable control and licensing. There was a growing need for “permission” every time a businessman desired to embark on a new enterprise. A garage proprietor who had desired to alter the alignment of a row of petrol pumps on his own property had required permission before being allowed to proceed with the work. A classic case had arisen in which a service-station owner had sought to erect an additional petrol pump at the rear of his premises for the convenience of patrons whose vehicles had been serviced. Permission had been given only after an undertaking that the pump would be “screened off from public view.” “What is there offensive or indecent about a petrol pump?” asked Professor Algie. “The generation of our parents would not have stood that sort of thing for a minute,” he declared. “Are we becoming a blabby people that we we becoming a flabby people that we better system of living than that, it’s time we went to the wall and went quickly.”