The Waipawa Mail, Published Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Tuesday, July 1, 1902. MONOPOLISING THE WIRES.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXIV, Issue 4373, 1 July 1902, Page 2

The Waipawa Mail, Published Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Tuesday, July 1, MONOPOLISING THE WIRES.

The Wanganui Herald thus voices the opinion of a large section of the Press of the colony:—We have on more than one occasion referred to the gross misuse of the telegraph service of the colony by Ministers of the Crown, to the great inconvenience, annoyance, and loss to the Press and public. This nuisance is most noticeable at the present juncture, when sheaves of telegrams are sent from one end of the colony to the other by the Acting-Premier (Sir Joseph Ward) repeating cables despatched by Mr Seddon from England. The instructions given to the telegraph officials are that the messages must be sent to members of both Houses of Parliament, all Ministers of the Crown, all Mayors and chairmen of local bodies, and all ministers of religion. This is a very large order, for which of course the country has to pay. There might be some excuse for such extravagance and for thus monopolising the telegraph wires of the colony—for be it remembered, all Government messages are marked urgent and take precedence, however commonplace the contents —if the intelligence conveyed were of an important nature and “news.” In nearly every case, however, the cables are but a repetition of what has been received some time before per Press Association agencies. It is the duty of the latter to send the latest news, and anything of an important nature is despatched as “ extraordinary,” taking precedence of ordinary messages. Mr Seddon and Sir Joseph Ward should know that only experts are engaged for such work, and they are not likely to miss any opportunities of keeping their agencies supplied with the latest news. The New Zealand Press is as up-to-date as the newspaper community in any part of the world, and needs no duplications from outside sources. The messages we have referred to are but a small example of the improper way in which the New Zealand telegraph service is used by the Government. Numberless instances could be quoted of Ministers despatching telegrams which should have been committed to pen and paper in the ordinary way. It is high time such a gross misuse of the telegraph service was discontinued.