“UNFAIR TREATMENT.”

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18201, 28 February 1929, Page 8

“UNFAIR TREATMENT.”

COMPLAINT BY SIR JOSEPH WARD. By Ta!«frapn—Pr eta A««oel»tlen. WELLINGTON, February ?7. Rightly or wrongly the present Government was in power by the support of 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; but the Government was not getting such fair play, declared the Prime Minister (Right Hon. Sir Joseph Ward), at the annual luncheon of the New’ Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation this afternoon. The Press Association, owned by the whole of the Press, whether Liberal, Conservative, or whatever it might be, and supported by all classes of the people, 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 deliber* ately misrepresented the United Party, and had deliberately created a false impression with regard to the Reform Party. The Prime Minister then referred to two incidents in connection with the General Election, to which he had previously referred in the House of Representatives; and quoted as another instance of alleged unfairness, that on tho occasion of the opening rf the electrified Lyttelton tunnel, it was telegraphed throughout the IVnunion that the leader of the Reform Party had received a great ovr’tion. but nothing was said about 'lie ov.tion which he (Sir Joseph V “d) had received. That was not fair nor honest. He did not blame the Press Association for these tactics; the blame rested rather on individual agents of the Association.