IN TIMES OF STRESS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 669, 22 May 1929, Page 16

IN TIMES OF STRESS

NEWSPAPERS WANT RADIO At the half-yearly conference of the representatives of the Australian metropolitan daily newspapers in Melbourne attention was directed to the restrictions against the use of radio in times of great stress when the ordinary means of communication by telephone and telegraph have broken down, as in the case of the recent disastrous floods in Tasmania. On that occasion it was pointed out that Hobart was completely cut off from Launceston and from the mainland owing to the telegraph lines being broken. Although the greatest anxiety was experienced by large numbers of people owing to the unconfirmed reports of loss of life, many hours elapsed before the postal authorities could be induced to suspend the regulations and permit the use of wireless for the transmission of news for publication. The conference carried the following motion: “That the conference strongly urges upon the PostmasterGeneral the advisability of providing for the postal regulations prohibiting the use of radio for the transmission of news being suspended at any time of national crisis when by reason thereof the ordinary means of communication are unavailable or break down.”