N.Z. PRESS ASSOCIATION

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12074, 27 February 1925, Page 6

N.Z. PRESS ASSOCIATION

The reminder to the public that the cable news supplied to this country is the most comprehensive in the world is the outstanding fact iff the reports of the Rotorua of the directors of the Press Association. The reminder is pleasant for all, hut none more so than the veterans, Sir G. Fenwick and Mr Henry Brett, the survivors of the hand of enterprising men '’'who formed and organised the association. The superior comprehensiveness of the news of the world secured by/the Press Association is the 'theme of admiration of every stranger who reads the newspapers of the Dominion, with an in-, terest. sharpened by his anxiety to learn what is happening in his own faroff country. This superior comprehensiveness was recognised throughout the Dominion during the war. For whereas. the great London dailies published only the reports of their own special correspondents, the New Zealand press got the comprehensive view formed by extracts from the reports of all. The consequence was Ihe Dominion readers, though getting less volume of intelligence, got a bettdb understanding of the events from day to day. Owing to the system of collection, we can say that the Dominion news in the Dominion press is also more comprehensive than the domestic news given in other countries. Those of us who remember the ‘‘news’’ work of earlier days, can best appreciate the contrast of to-day. There were no cables, of course, and only specials for the local gatherings, ill-paid according to the natural order of thing, and without time at their disposal, being busy pressmen, for this extra work of theirs: Some enterprising work was done in the matter of comprehensive consolidation. In this the names of Holt and McCarthy figure chiefly. Eventually, when a cable reached the Dominion, the newspaper* proprietors took the work in hand. The work in front of them looked, and was, colossal. But they tackled it, devised a procedure just to small papers and large alike, and got a combination goipg on the right lines. We who know the circumstances marvel to-day at the achievement. That takes its- place in history as an example of bow the pioneers of New Zealand solved their problems “on their own.” It was a co-operative own.