LITERARY FUND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26614, 10 November 1947, Page 6

LITERARY FUND

Sir,—After reading your report of my remarks about the subsidising of writers by the State, 1 feel that I cannot have made my attitude entirely clear. I was concerned, not to damn the State Literary Fund with bell, book, and candle—for that would imply too great a concession to the doctrine of total depravity—but to point out what seem to me to be the very real dangers in any scheme of State patronage. These dangers can, I think, be avoided if we keep- them steadily in mind. We are at the stage where precedents will be set, and we must make sure that they are the right ones. The first thing to be done is to ensure that no writer need feel a sense of obligation to any person or party. For this reason it is essential that the committee shall be given full powers over the fund and not -merely an " advisory ” role as at present. The writer receiving assistance will then feel a responsibility to the State, not to the Government, and will be able to fulfil that responsibility by writing freely, under the guidance of ms own conscience and judgment. Any different state of affairs is surely intolerable. , My arithmetic was wrong when I spoke of the committee. There are nine members, not twelve. There are no representatives of Auckland, Dunedin, or Invercargill, and I think this is unfortunate.—I am, etc.. A. R. D. Fairburn.