COMMENT BY MINISTER

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24900, 13 June 1946, Page 5

COMMENT BY MINISTER

TRANSMISSION TIMES , MENTIONED

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, June 12. Commenting on Mr D. F. C. Saxton’s statement at the Empire Press Union conference, the Acting-Postmaster-General (the Hon. F. Jones) said the policy of the New Zealand Government on telecommunications had been to keep abreast of the most modern developments. Discussing beam wireless transmission between London and New Zealand. the Minister said that from the radio point .of view New Zealand’s position was most difficult because of its geographical position in relation to the world news centres. Under the best conditions beam wireless transmission would be faster than cable, but fading and other adverse radio conditions counterbalanced any such advantage. ‘‘On some occasions there is a complete blackout of radio signals, and furthermore the best reception times in New Zealand of London transmissions do not coincide with the times when press traffic imposes its heaviest demands,” the Minister said. “The policy of the Government in the matter is constantly subject to review in the light of developments. The reliability of beam wireless channels may be improved by the current development of relay stations, and these experiments are being watched.” The Minister said that although cable traffic was still heavier than normal, on the average the time which elapsed from the time of presentation of press messages in London to the time of delivery to the Press Association in Wellington did not exceed three hours. For internal distribution the post office, for many years, had provided special teleprinter channels for press purposes. These channels operate at a speed of 66 words a minute. In most cases transmission from Wellington, where the messages were lodged, was direct to the office concerned, and transmission time averaged about half an hour. Where retransmissions were involved this time was increased by about 20 minutes. ‘‘The Post Office is steadily approaching its objective of having direct transmission facilities for press traffic from Wellington to all newspaper stations, a change that will be made as soon as the necessary equipment is available in the next few months. Newspaper visitors from overseas have commented favourably on the speed of internal press message distribution in New Zealand.” In conclusion the Minister said that Mr Saxton’s reference to radio teletype facilities implied that such facilities were available in other countries for press purposes. This was not the case, as landlines were invariably used throughout the world for press and other private internal communication channels, the use of radio frequencies being necessarily reserved for special communication services which could not be provided by other means.