TUESDAY, JULY 27, 1909. CABLE NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 570, 27 July 1909, Page 4

TUESDAY, JULY 27, 1909. CABLE NEWS.

At intervals during the past five or six weeks our cable columns havo contained many references to the cost of transmitting press, telegrams from Great Britain to Australasia. This is not a subject in which the Australasian public is less concerned than the Australasian press. The' great drawback to the. attainment of a cable news service as efficient as the average newspaper: desires, and as the public interest requires) is the. excessive cost of the messages. Every New Zealand newspaper which prints the .messages of the United Press Association is thoroughly conscious of the deficiencies of-the service, but what is it to do ? . It is impossible for any,newspaper to establish an independent.cable servico of its own,' not only on account of the , cost—it would amount to many: thousands a year at least for quite an ordinary service—but also . because independence, in respect of cable news would involve exclusion from the s advantages of co-oporatibn in the service of the New Zealand Press Association. At the present time the rate is a shilling a word— owing, in no small measure to the assistance of Sir .J. G. 'Ward a movement to 'reduce the rate to ninepence has recently succeeded and. will shortly become effective—and cable news at that, rate has been impossible excepting. : under a combination. This combination—it has-been called a monopoly, and it really is a monopoly for all; practical is the United Press Association, k> which the/! New .Zealand , Press -Association is. allied. A newspaper which wishes ;to ; provide some sort Of cable news: has h.6 option'but to join the Association, and print its news. On the whole, .the cable service from England is not bad...-.'But it is eccentric ; it. is sometimes, through faulty condensation; . it. often ■gives us amusing trivialities'■:that,- we, could ■ do without; and lately, ./we!:., arc sorry : to say, it has occasionally not been free from "colour,'" So 'far ■; as A.-The.. Dominion is concerned we have endeavoured to supply corrective comment'when :it has;been npcessary.',,;.. .- : .:■ j ' ' ; -v ~:' The. whole question became a controversial, question of great-interest during , tho currency of.tho,lmperial Press Conference.", A\cprrespohderit of the Nation pointed out in a long letter the real evil, namely, the fact that all the cable news printed in-the Australasian, press.'is supplied by.one man, "an irresponsible, private censor." This man has erred 1 lamentably on many occasions, but often, wd'-feel. sure,, unconsciously.-..'Of late: he has ..soomed. inclined to.-'use "his office ( .to' the .detriment of, tho preserit/BritishGoyernment.'; With a good.deal of the policy !bf/that'. Government-" we .are;' in profound disagreement, but' we set iair play.- and truth-above the. interests of any'political party here or ariyVherc else. The danger in the present system, as the Nation's correspondent points out, is "not deliberate; falsification of news, but, rather -. an : hysto'ricar over-statement resulting from too scanty' a cable, service.". The position pf.the Australasian cable syndicate'wasfully, discussed .in -the Manchester-Gtla'r-. dian,' which.printed a statement'by the London manager of the' Association and a reply by' Mb. Temperley, one -of the Australasian/press delegates. The manager's statement was-in effect a denial of ;the charge: that the Association was an evil monopoly, butjhe did not deny that it was'a monopoly.' ■ Mr. : Temperley took thai opposite view. He charged the sociation" with colouring the hews, with having "squared!' Reuterls Agency, with boycotting the Pacific Cablo, 1 and with being secretly opposed to any. reduction of. charges which will- enablo any newspapers 'outside the combine to establish a co-operative seryice-of their own. But it ia manifestly /'undesirable that there should bo ho alternative to this .'monopoly. Dear cables' mean,, \vhat is worse than a bad monopoly, scanty-news and imperfect presentations of situations and opinions. It is ; the difficulty of ,condensation, and* not the intrusion of colour, that makes the cable-service fall so far short of what the needs of tho Empire require. ' As Lord Crewe observed, when opening the discussion at,tho Conference on cable communications, ' "it is extromcly difficult for really accurate accounts of what is said and done either in Britain or overseas to be reported all over, the Empire." ...... : - :

The cheapening of the service will be of little value if it is'hot so drastic.as.to open the door to competition. While Australasia obtains its cable news from one office, the cable news will be defective. The point is. well put by an English contemporary'; "The-mere fact that all 'the news does go through one channel is enough. It would still bo a great Imperial danger if that service were run by a:staff of political philosophers.. There are at least two sides to every case, and no one organisation, however impartial it might be in intention, can, possibly do justice to both- sides. . '. .V. No one, with the best will in the world, can avoid giving some colour to the facts that he. presents, any more than a man ; can think of an object without giving it some individual shape and form." On the ivhoky tho. present cable service is a good deal better than nothing; but it is so:much worse than what such.a service' should be that everything that makes for the cheapening of cable rates is to bo welcomed. Abuses will always creep under ■the cloak of monopoly. Wo have seen lately that the New Zealand Press: Association can harbour abuses without troubling its head to removo them. Telegrams so highly coloured as to bo'grossly misleading have been dispatched all over the Dominion from this city. Thcso messages may . not ■ have' mattered . very greatly. But it is a much more serious matter when error is propagated throughout the Empire. The /monopolistic character of the Press Associations is unavoidable as matters stand. But tho monopoly becomes indefensible when it consciously abandons impartiality. The danger of partiality, moreover, is ever present. It will be a good day for the Empire and.the Australasian public, as wull' ae ■ for juurnfllkm, whou tho penny

wireless cables advocated by the.London Times set truth free from the restrictions of a Press Association that has become a monopoly under the pressure of high cable rates. . ' .