THE PRESS ASSOCIATIION.

Otago Witness, Issue 3912, 5 March 1929, Page 7

THE PRESS ASSOCIATIION.

SIR JOSEPH WARD’S CRITICISM. ■WELLINGTON, February 27.

Rightly or wrongly the present Government was in power by the support of the representatives of the people in Parliament, and, that being so, the Government was entitled to fair play from the vehicle of public information supported by the newspapers and by the people of all shades of political opinion in the country. The Government, however, was not getting such fair play, declared the Prime Minister (Sir Joseph Ward) at the annual luncheon of the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation. Owned by the whole of the press, whether Liberal, Conservative, or whatever it might be, and supported by all classes of the people, it was bound as a matter of honourable conduct to treat all sides in politics fairly. He had no feeling about it, but he wanted to put before them as business men two recent instances of unfair treatment by the Press Association, whose agents in some parts of New Zealand had deliberately misrepresented the United Party and deliberately created a false impression with regard to the Reform Party. On the eve of the election the leaders of the three parties had been asked for a message to the people of New Zealand. The leader of each of the other parties was given by the Press Association about a column for his message, but Sir Joseph’s own message had been cut down to a few inches only. Again, the utterances of the other two leaders on the night before the poll had been reported to the extent of a column each, whereas his speech at his big meeting at Invercargill had not been reported by the Press Association. Another instance he might give was that on the occasion of the opening of the electrified Lyttelton tunnel it was telegraphed throughout the Dominion that the Leader of the Reform Party received a great ovation, but nothing was said about the ovation which he (Sir Joseph Ward) received. That was not fair or honest. He did not blame the Press Association for these tactics; the blame rested rather on the Individual agents of the association.