TRIBUTES TO PRESS

Chronicle (Levin), 7 August 1946, Page 7

TRIBUTES TO PRESS

^ I New,s]iapers- in New Zealand worej clean, wholesouie and fair-mimled, and1 | rcl'raiued from publishiiig any inatteiy tlial would encourage crime, said the; Kew .lasper Calder in a broad'-ast ad- ! dress from Auckland. 'lTie tiilk dealt ; with tlie press arnl U-s relation lo crime. j Alr. Calder was until reeently Angiicaiii cily missioner in Auckland and his! i work brought liim into close contact • with tlie crimiual Courts. ' "Whatever conqilaint migjit be mudC in tlie spljere of party politics, at least j in the subjeet under review I eun pay j an honcst and sincere tribule to the) newspapers oi' the Doiiiinion, " lie satd j " In sonie parts of tlie world, a crimereporter can so prejudico the readj'ig' publie that the trial of an uecuse-J isj inore or less settled before ever lio| roaches the superior Court. In Newj Zealand this is utterly and absoluteli ! disallowed, and- 1 aiways like to belijve. | and do belicve, tliat the qress oi the) Lomiiiion have no desire to 'haug a iiian before lie is tried. ' "For my part, wliile I belicve in Ihe! freedoin of tlie press as liuich as any I i>ody, 1 ani aiways tlianki'ul that tlu- , [iress of the Dominion, taken as a whole,} mainlains a remarkablv healtny lone. I i have never rcad of vice condoned or (f e\ i Idoers being- lionwed. Iu col-i, une- , motional word's, the siinj.le facts -rre set ; out, and 011 tliose ra ro occasions w'li.vn' Ihe press bocomes euraged, Jet ns bej tliankful it is aiways against the peroc-i J rator of sonie liorriblo deed wiiich j nuikes decent people nauseated with | shame and liorror. " Alr. Calder conchided liis address with ; an a])peal to new.spa]>erineii lo "crack; down" with all tlieir weight against j \iee, evil and crime, but, wliile hating-! sin, to be mercif'ul to tlie sinner tliat I he might relialiiHtate liimself aiul light j liack to the jiaths of rectitude.