RADIO IN CANADA.

Waikato Times, Volume 110, Issue 18407, 14 August 1931, Page 3

RADIO IN CANADA.

DOMINION TO CONTROL. SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT. (From a Correspondent.) OTTAWA. July 17. According to a majority judgment of the Supreme Court of Canada, control of radio broadcasting in the Dominion rests with the Federal authorities. An appeal is being taken to the Privy Council on behalf of Quebec and other provinces which disputed Jurisdiction claimed by the Dominion In the matter—and exercised unchallenged until recent months—and pending this final legal word the Federal Government has had to defer announcement of its radio policy. The Supreme Court held that the Dominion had full jurisdiction over radio "on the ground of convenience amounting to necessity." The Dominion, it was set out, must be allowed “a very wide control over transmission and the power to enter Into agreements with other nations governing the allotment of wave lengths and the location of stations." The provinces, said the majority of the court, were not in a position to exercise such control.

Under authority of an Act of Parliament control of radio now rests In Use Department of Marine, which hAs In force licenses for 64 broadcasting stations at 50 dollars each and something like half a million licenses for receiving sets at 1 dollar each. Two broadcasting plants belong to ths Province of Manitoba, three to Canadian National Hallways, and the remainder are privately owned and operated.

A Royal Commission, appointed two years ago, made a strong recommendation for the establishment of a Go-vernment-owned corporation to take over all broadcasting in Canada, with provincial representation on the board of management. The attitude of the present Government towards the proposal is not known, and its policy will not be revealed until the Privy Council has given its decision on the vital point of Jurisdiction.