A YEAR'S BIG BILL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3003, 4 October 1911, Page 4

A YEAR'S BIG BILL.

GOVERNMENT ADVERTISEMENTS.

(.From Oub Own Cokbesfondent.) WELLINGTON, September 26. The total amount expended by the Uovernment during the last financial year on advertisements in newspapers ot tne Dominion was £10,495 lis 3d. Ibis amount includes £l4O 10s for advertisements in sundry casual publications, ine number of newspapers to which ment advertisements were given was l/o. When the return giving this information was presented to the House of Kepresentatives this afternoon Mr Massey compared the expenditure on advertisements in newspapers supporting the two political parties. Dealing first with tne two Dannevirke papers, he said that tne Advocate had received £65 18s 4d, while the Evening News, which took the Opposition side in polit'cs, received only 10s lOd. . • . The Prime Minister :" Oh, let us get on with the business." Mr Massey remarked that plainly the Dannevirke Evening News had been punished.for criticising the Government. In Wellington the New Zealand Times had received £575 12s for Government advertising. He thought the Mew Zealand Times supported the Government. Members : " No." Mr Massey : I think it is practically owned by members of the Government. I don't think it will be disputed that members of the Government are large shareholders in the New Zealand Times. Sir Joseph Ward: We have a perfect right to be shareholders in it. Mr-Massey added that the Evening Post last year received £596, probably because it criticised the Government occasionally. The Dominion received only £9 for Government advertisements. In Oamaru the Mail, which supported the Government, and was owned by a prominent politician, got £llO 17s 9d, and the other Oamaru paper received in the same period only 30s. Mr Massey added that personally he had not a copper of financial interest in any of the papers he had named. He referred to them simply as an indication of how the Government expended the money for which it was trustee. The principle involved was whether political money should be expended for party purposes. Mr Jennings suggested that advertisements in a Government publication might replace advertisements in newspapers. The Prime Minister replied that there were 83 newspapers which were not on the Government list for advertisements. A majority of them supported the Government. Since July, 1908, not a single paper had been added to the list, for the amount spent annually was as much as the country was entitled to devote to the purpose. The North Otago Times had not been put upon the list because it had a small circulaition. The Dannjsvirke News had tried to force itself upon the country in the interest of one man, but it was upon papers of this kind that the Leader of the Opposition asked for a larger expenditure. If the Government treated a Government paper similarly s'tuated in the way suggested by Mr Massey it would be charged with Tammanyism of the worst kind. In Wellington the Post supported the leading freeholders of the Opposition; yet Mr Massey had the audacity to say it was a Government paper. Mr Massey : No, it is Independent. Sir Joseph Ward said he declined to spend another £SOO or £6OO to support Mr Massey.in his political candidature. .In Auckland the Opposition papers received more than the Government papers, and in Dunedin the -Opposition papers received much the larger share. The Government did what was fair between Government and Opposition papers. If he agreed to what was now asked the amount spent on advertising would be doubled or trebled, and the Government would not do this for either Government or Opposition members.