RADIO IN POLITICS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22433, 1 June 1936, Page 12

RADIO IN POLITICS

VOICES AND MANNEES

LABOUR AT MICROPHONE UNHEARD OPPOSITION TALENT BY BERNICE E. PHACKLF.TON It must bo apparent to the country by this time that through broadcasting there is to bo disseminated only a leaven of Opposition criticism, not a balanced proportion of the whole loaf. For the interposition of Independents favouring Labour seems to give the arrangement a propagandist value, which may be interpreted as a measure to counter newspaper criticism. But leaven workoth quietly and the Opposition may be content with that. Yet there are on tho Opposition benches a fow men whom the country would bo jnterested to hear. Mr. Holland's fresh breezy stylo would go over well. Mr. Holvoak, running like a lively brook across the rapids of chaff and innuendo, would brighten the fireside circle. And it might be found that Mr. Hargcst's restrained conversational way is the perfect microphone manner. Mr. Forbes, of course, has not a radio personality. To be properly enjoyed he must be seen. His droll charm is in the slight play of his countenance. He is moderate in x'egard to his delivery. Some Quiet Ministers

The preponderance of Mr. Nash and Mr. Savage in the broadcasting means, too, that the radio audience will have to wait until next session to hear some of the Ministers. Some arc not heard very often in the House even. Mr. Lee Martin is not articulate on every bill. Mr. Parry rarely speaks. Mr. Langstone would be worth hearing on the air. In appearance he is a sort of Ministerial Punch, and in argument he has a quick humour and a fund of stories. His manner cannot be easily copied by the written word. He threshes his desk with his hand while his sentences fly off thp flail.

Mr. Fraser is very quiet, but he is a force nevertheless. The Scottish voice, first heard in New Zealand at the end of the century's opening decade that brought so many of the present Labour leaders to this country, spoke for the Prime Minister on Tuesday while Mr. Savage was absent from Parliament. Mr. Fraser is a short step by physical distance from the Wellington Wharf, where he once laboured as a waterside worker, but he is a long step by achievement from those days of 1910. Political Shadow Show This man has his fingers on the strings that pull the marionettes. There is a shadow show in politics that is all those men in the galleries see of the intricate business of the bringing of Labour Party policy into action. Sometimes one does glimpse faces there that have more purpose in them than the average. They are tho faces of workers, graduated now from their soap-box apprenticeship to a prominent place in the party, and they watch intently, not as the ordinary habitues watch with detached enjoyment, but as men who see a meaning in every act. The meaning may be hidden from the uninitiated, even from the skilled politicians on the other side of the House, although they watch alertly too. That is why, for instance, Mr. C. H. Burnett's apparent defection from Labour Party discipline was so joyously acclaimed by the Opposition. There are not many defections. This play of politics is a curious thing. Mr. Burnett's criticism of Mr. Semple's supremacy in transport, was a third reading, last minute criticism after he had voted for the clause in the bill. Was this real daring, or only stage daring? Mr. Fraser could answer that.