BROADCASTING BILL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume IV, Issue 155, 12 June 1936, Page 6

BROADCASTING BILL.

Final Stages In House. MR SMITH'S CRITICISM. Press Association —Copyright. Wellington, June 11. The committee stages of the Broadcasting Bill were completed without amendment in the House of Representatives early this morning, and the Bill was read the third time and passed.. The Legislative Council received the Bill this afternoon and passed it after a brief debate.

Mr. 5. G. Smith (Opp., New Plymouth) contended that political control could not possibly lead to fairness. He thought New Zealand should follow the British system, which met with the approval of the people. The Government was changing the system without consulting the listeners, and many of the listeners who were opposed to the Government would be used to spread Government propaganda, and the House was told that that was fair and just. The Bill, which seemed simple, was setting up a dictatorship in the hands of I the. Government, and he thought the | Prime Minister would in time regret it. j Broadcasting should be used in the na- | ticnal interest and as a national serI vice, but in the future it would be used to bolster up the Government. The l Minister was just taking the power to set up an advisory council. He might not set up a council, but if he did I establish it he need not consult it.

The Broadcasting Board had improved the position in New Zealand and had done extremely good work, yet it was to be abolished, Mr. Smith concluded. He had always thought that B stations should be encouraged, and he congratulated the Minister on the provision to help them. An amendment moved by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. G. W. Forbes, to clause 12 to delete the sub-clause providing that moneys derived from the operation of commercial stations should be oaid into the broadcasting account was lest.