PHONOGRAPHIC SPEECHES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 25, 21 June 1911, Page 8

PHONOGRAPHIC SPEECHES.

SIR JOSEPH WARD ON THE N.Z. PRESS. LONDON, May 12. Sir Joseph Ward, the Prime Minister ot New Zealand complied yesterday with the request tfiat lie should speak on the influence of the Press in New Zealand, for the purpose of making phonograph records to be reproduced at the Empire Newspaper exhibit at the White City. In addition, Sir Joseph has made a record on the need of better cable communication within the Empire, and has also spoken on the attractions of New Zealand. This Empire Newspaper Exhibit is the first attempt to group the great oversea newspapers together, and to demonstrate to the British public their importance in the scattered parts of the Empire. The Prime Minister’s phonograph speeches are appended:— THE PRESS IN NEW ZEALAND. "The influence of the Press depends first and mainly upon the education of the people it serves, and in New Zealand, where illiteracy has almost entirely disappeared, every man, woman, girl and boy reads the newspapers. Moreover, New Zealand being still a very young country, with much less of that great network of communication by road and railway which prevails in Great Britain, the remoter parts of the Dominion are served by weekly newspapers which contain an account of all that is most important that is happening both in our own country and in the outside world. More newspapers are sold in New Zealand in proportion to our population than anywhere else in the English-speak-ing portion of the British Empire, and consequently the influence of the Press in New Zealand is profound. It becomes a daily guide, philosopher and friend of the whole population. Its influence in proportion to the influence of the Platform is, consequently, very great, and the Press of New Zealand, recognising the enormous sphere of influence it exercises, rises to a full recognition of its duty, and is as clean, wholesome and intelligent as the Press of any part of the Empire." CABLE LINKS OF EMPIRE. “The intense concern the outposts of our Empire have iff the great happenings of the Motherland induces an interest in cable communications which is always keen and ever increasing. It is through the cable that a better and closer understanding is being brought about between the centre of the Empire and its outlying parts. It awakens an immediate interest which postal communication and its consequent, delays never arouse, and, therefore, through the cable we, who are fourteen thousand miles off, are daily kept in touch with the great concerns taking place here which affect the welfare of our nation. Thus the great ideal of Imperial Unity is being effectively and steadily promoted by the existence and extension of our cable system, and the cheaper that communication is made the more readily will that great desideratum be furthered. Adjuncts to this agent ot closer Imperialism are Universal Penny Postage and more rapid steamer communication between the Motherland and the outposts of the Empire, with all its scattered possessions protected by an unconquerable Imperial Navy.” Sir Joseph Ward’s third speech concerned New Zealand’s scenic glories and fauna.