COLLECTION OF NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21111, 19 February 1932, Page 11

COLLECTION OF NEWS.

VALUABLE CABLE SYSTEM.

HOW NEW ZEALAND IS SERVED.

WORLD-WIDE ARRANGEMENTS,

Few people know that the overseas cable news . published in the newspapers of N e\v Zealand exceeds in scope that supplied to their readers by the daily press of Australia, but convincing evidence of that fact was given to the guests at the monthly luncheon of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce yesterday by Mr. R. J. Gilmour, of Invercargill, 0110 of tlio delegates to the annual conference of the Newspaper Proprietors' Association which has been sitting in Auckland. The luncheon was held in Milno and Chovce's Reception Hall, and in addi. t-ion to a largo attendance of members of tho chamber there were present the delegates to tho conference) and advertising men who have been attending tho Advertising Convention which hag been run concurrently with the conference. Ihe object of Mr. Gilmour's address was to explain how the British and foreign cable news is collected and supplied to tho newspapers of New Zealand. Ho recalled how, before tho laying of tho cable between Australia and New Zealand in 1876, the newspapers of this country had to depend on information brought by overseas ships for news of tho outsido world. As far back as 1869 tho Government of the day, headed by Sir Julius Vogel, realised the value of a reliable news service and established in Melbourne an agency from which a budget of news, prepared from the cables appearing in the Australian papers, was despatched to New Zealand by mail and distributed to the newspapers. This was, however, discontinued later on the score of cost and it was then that the owners of the newspapers in this country decided to establish their own" services. For a time there were two groups operating, but ifc was found that the cost of these competitive services was becoming ruinous and three years after the opening of the Tasman cable they combined. From that time the service known as the United Press Association had been carried on without interruption. A Valuable Advantage. The first thing that the combine did was to obtain the right to use in NewZealand the cable services which the principal Australian newspapers had set up for their own use, said the speaker, and to-day the main source of supply of the cables published in New Zealand was the cable services of the main groups of Australian newspapers. It was explained that these Australian newspapers maintained their own staffs in London and at the disposal of these staffs were the gi'eat news collecting agencies of the world and the work of the foreign staffs of such great London newspapers as the Times and the Daily Mail. This news pool was the source from which the cable news published in Australia was drawn, so that even if the New, Zealand newspapers wished to deal direct with London they could not obtain a service that would rival that now used. In addition they would have to maintain in London large staffs and would merely be doubling the cost of the messages now cabled to Australia, while the news would in no respect be different to that now received. Expansion Through the Years. Since 1887 the New Zealand Press Association had maintained its own office and staff in Australia and from this c.entre was sent news which was regarded as being of interest to New Zealand. The readers in New Zeajand had an advantage over those in Australia, said Mr. Gilmour, because in Australia there were several groups oi papers gathering cable news and while one service might be used by morning papers and another by evening publications, the New Zealand papers had the benefit of all services. For that reason there was no press in the world that had a British and foreign cable service equal to that enjoyed by New Zealand. In addition to this arrangement, the Press Association saw to it that events in which tho Australian press might not be particularly interested were reported direct. Ho instanced the visits of New Zealand Rugby and cricket teams to England, for which special arrangements were made, and the sinking of the Tahiti. In the case of the loss of the Tahiti the association communicated by wireless with Bishop Bennett, who was a passenger, with the result that graphic descriptions of the tragedy and the subsequent adventures of the passengers were published. As showing tile growth of cable and telegraphic services received by the New Zealand newspapers as the result of their own resource and enterprise, Mr. Gilmour said that in 1879 the total messages put through the Press Association numbered 87,500, with about 3,000,000 words, while last year the messages exceeded half a million, and the words 100,000,000. In the same period the cable service had increased from 150 words to over 1,000,000 words.

At the conclusion of the address the speaker was accorded a hearty vote of thanks 011 the motion of Mr. (J. If. Bennett.