A DAY’S WORLD NEWS

Taranaki Daily News, 9 June 1931, Page 9

A DAY’S WORLD NEWS

HOW IT COMES TO DOMINION WORK OF PRESS ASSOCIATION. NEW ZEALAND'S FINE SERVICE. “How we get our cable news’ was the subject of an address to the New Plymouth Rotary Club at luncheon yesterday by Rotarian T. C- List, who explained the working of the New Zealand Press Association, and the system of gathering the cable news in Canada. the° United° States and New Zealand. He also referred to the rapid developments in wireless telegraphy and telephony, and prophesied that further radical Changes would take place in the next few years. After handing round to his audience samples of, a telegram from Dunedin and cables from other parts of the world as printed on the “flimsy” by the Creed receiving machine and sent from the post offices to the newspapers, Mr. List explained the working of the association by means of trained agents sending news from every important town, and stated that the cable service that New Zealand had towlay was the best in the English-speaking world, and, in fact, was accepted as a model service. One feature of it was the fact that it was absolutely disinterested, and was independent of the Government. The Canadian organisation differed from the New Zealand one in that there were two classes of members, called leased wire and pony. The former received the full service over telegraph wires leased and operated by the association. The latter consisted of the smaller dailies unable to bear the heavy cost of a leased wire service or prohibited by distance, and these pony papers were served by central bureaux. A service running from a few hundred words or two or three thousand words, prepared by Canadian Press editors, was delivered to them over the ordinary wires on a word-toll basis. The company maintained a correspondent in everv centre, and thereby every daily paper received an efficient Dominion news service.

For world news the Canadian Press largely depended upon the Associated Press of the United States. This service was supplemented by' a' London office, which sent a direct service to Canada, mostly of British and Empire news. The American News Agency catered primarily for its own people. The Canadian Press had its own staff in New York editing the services there and giving the news a Canadian orientatiom The complementary cable service restored the balance in favour of the British connection. CANADA’S £120,000 SERVICE. The United States Associated Press drew the bulk of its news in London from Reuter’s, which collected news from- all over the world and supplied much of the news received in New Zealand and Australia. The Canadian Press had its own staff in Reuter’s London office, and sent direct to Canada news < . Britain and the Empire not available in New York by-the Associated Press. The cost of operating the Canadian Press Association amounted tj about £120,000 annually, the cost of leasing wires and telegraph printing accountinn- for nearly half the-amount. - In London, "continued the speaker, he came into frequent contact with the managers of -the two cable services, the Australian Press Association and the Australian Newspaper Cable Service, which supplied both Australia and New Zealand. These men had access to all the news as it came through to London newspapers, as well. as the British Press Association, Exchange Telegraph, and Reuter’s, Lloyd’s Shipping, etc. Specially trained staffs went through all the matter and made a selection, which was then put on the wires for Australia, or rather, wireless, for 90 per cent, of the Press Association messages now went by beam wireless. They were on deck for 22 out of the 24 hours. In addition, the staffs of the two offices covered any function in Which Australia or New Zealand was interested, such, for instance, as the Premiers’ Conference, and all matters of colonial interest or importance. They kept in close touch with the Australian and New Zealand Government Houses in London, and the shipping companies, and obtained from them any information worth cabling. In this work they were greatly assisted by the New Zealand publicity officer (Mr. H. T. B. Drew), an old journalist, who was doing invaluable work for the Dominion, often under difficult conditions. After inspecting the work and examining their methods, he could not suggest any improvement that could be made to the Australian owners, from whom New Zealand obtain the lights to both services, except that he thought it would 5 be an advantage if they could have a New Zealand-trained journalist on both staffs as soon as opportunity afforded, for the New Zealand viewpoint in regard to news was somewhat different from the Australian. He was more than ever satisfied, after examining the position in Canada, the United States, England and Europe, that New Zealand enjoyed the most efficient, the most varied, and the most comprehensive cable news service in the world. HIGH SPEED RADIO WORK. Continuing, Rotarian List said he was the guest of the-Imperial and International Communications, Ltd. at. Radio House, and witnessed . the sending or the Marconi messages from London to Australia by their high speed beam telegraph circuits. The process was -rapid and simple. At present high speed Morse working was in use on all beam services, the reception being by manual typing from the. signals, on the receiving tape. The engineers were endeavouring to perfect a mechanical method of reception. Methods had actually been developed for use with Monse code, capable of. turning out printed messages for delivery. Durino- the Press Conference the Post-master-General (Mr. H. B. Lees-Smith) had discussed the possibilities of wireless telephony and picture telegraphy. He expressed the opinion that pictiue telegraphy would soon be developed amo°imst all the principal countries of the world, and stated that at Rugby, which was the largest and most powerful wireless station in the world, arrangements were in preparation for. the institution of services to the Dominions and other countries of the world. The public use of the Australian service, just beo-un, had been very encouraging. The British, he said, had quickly and unostentatiously secured an important position in the system of long distance telephone services of the world. THE CABLE SERVICES. It was, of course, well known that the telegraph services between Britain and the Dominions, both by cable and wireless, were in the hands of the Impel lai a: ’ International Communications Company, the chairman of which (Sir Baml Blackett) attended the conference and spoke on “Empire Communications and the Empire Prc.-s,” He remarked that the company was an experiment in. a new combination of private cntcrpiisc

and public control, and was ap. attempt to combine some of the best features of both. He believed that active co-opera-tiou between the Governments of. the Empire and Imperial and International Communications was vital to the success of this new great Imperial public utility company, and he appealed for the. support and encouragement of all the Governments of the Empire, and particularly of the Empire Press. The colonial delegates to the Pres® Conference were given the opportunity of discussing the daily official wireless broadcast with the Foreign’ Office officials of the British Official Wireless Service from Rugby station, with a view, if possible, to improving it and extending its usefulness. The work was jn the hands of ex-journalists at the Colonial Office. The depression had hit the great English newspapers very badly, continued Rotarian List, and several well-known newspapers had either gone under or were in dire straits. Competition, was fierce, and there was a tendency for chain papers to displace many of the old-established dailies. Huge annual losses had recently been incurred by papers such as the London Times. The cost of production was enormous, for papers like the Times had special representatives in the capitals of every country in the world —highly qualified men who were in some cases paid salaries higher than England’s ambassadors in those countries. The standard of the New Zealand papers was the admiration of everybody at Home, said Rotarian List in conclusion, and they could not understand how a country with such a comparatively small population as New Zealand had could produce .such excellent papers, particularly the illustrated weeklies, which were the best papers of their kind in the world.