MR ARMSTRONG'S COMPLAINT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23334, 28 October 1937, Page 6

MR ARMSTRONG'S COMPLAINT

CITY NEWSPAPER'S REPLY A MISLEADING STATEMENT "FAVOURITISM ON PART OF MINISTER " (Per United Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH. Oct. 27. Mr H. T. Armstrong's complaint in the House yesterday concerning the non-publication of his unemployment statement is answered in an editorial in to-night's Star-Sun as follows: "Such a statement is news only to daily newspapers, which number not 140 but 56. and most of the daily papers.are too small to be able to give space to official statements published by city and chief provincial journals. In the particular instance under notice the fact to be remarked is not that so few journals published the statement,, but that so many of them were prepared to overlook what appeared to be a piece of pronounced favouritism on the part of the Minister. Although Mr Armstrong stated that copies were posted direct to 140 newspapers on October 15 'in such a manner as to ensue that they reached a large number simultaneously,' the truth is, that one Wellington newspaper was given an advantage of 36 hours over all the morning newspapers in the Dominion and 48 hours' advantage at least over all other evening newspapers. Copies of the statement were despatched from Wellington not on October 15, but on October 16, after it had been published in the capital city. If Mr Armstrong had followed the usual course in such matters he would either have ' named the date for simultaneous publication, or he would have handed the document to the Press Association, which would have made sure that the newspapers were treated alike."