GOVERNMENT ADVERTISING.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 693, 18 December 1909, Page 6

GOVERNMENT ADVERTISING.

A "POLITICAL OFFICE." ' imrTJOMINION" BOYCOTT. EEFEEENCES IN THE HOUSE ; An lnteresbiig discussion took placo in tho , i, House last night, when the votos for tho Government Advertising Office woro dealt Tuth '' Mr. Alien (Bruce) protested against form ing a new advertising office in a time of re- ! trenohraent.! The office was useless as far as he 7 could see. The Prune Minister said the office had i saved ,£2500 in respect of electoral advertising •" alone. Mr. Allen pointed out that all the Depart- : tolonts had various votes for advertising ; Tho Prime Minister replied that no vote for advertising was iecei\cd by the 4d>ertising Office, , which was simply a controlling olhct, ana had already saved JiIOOO or .£4OOO • > Mr. Herdman (Wellington North) could not we the neces itj for the olhcc Ho would like a return presented of tho whole of the Go fernrcent's advertising for the year. Mr Masse} said he hid moved for a return, : jjfflt had never seen it, though the motion »a accepted He tho Go\ernment vuh spending' a J oar on advertising, and if F bo, that was fat too much Tho Department F was set up for political purposes (Ihe Prime t Minister That is not so ) The principal duty I " of the Department was to cut out political . speeches from the newspapers The Prime Minister I contradict you ab- - wlutoly. Mr. Massoy I will prove it. Hero are two , slips which are furnished to officers Mr Massey read fiom tho slips as follows —' Iα- ; r -tract'from newspaper, published at , ' on date, speech; — political, spoakei —- r <if necessary)" Tho business of the officers oE ■the Department was to clip all political critic isms which appeared in newspapers for the perusal of Ministers They w ore , pasted in tro eci.jp books, which wore known as tho black book " The Idvortuflg Department was a polii tical department, and a cog in thereat political ■\ maclune uhich had kopt tho Liberal party kn power for a number ot years. • 1 t Prime Minister in Denial. Tho Prime Minister said that _there were ■Bo politics in connection Tilth tSo Depart menf Altogether thi3 year advertising had cost the country i! 16,700 The Department was established to bring aboit economy, formerly the wort ran riot CutUngs had to bo got r from various papers by various Departments i*. As far as he was concerned, he did not want f to use the advertisement Officers were not icquircd to read speeches at all * Mr. Buchanan But they do it Sir Joseph Why shouldn't they' Kesuming, the Prime Minister «aid that tho was not giving advertisements for tho l sake of giving them, and wero now not v charged more than they should be ch-vrged by j tmy paper , •> Reduction of Veto Moved. ! Mr. Allen (Bruce) moved that tho item of , J£lsßl for tho Advertising Office bo Ttduced by !£584 Thore could bo no doubt tha , - tho De ,* partment was used for political purposes » Mr. Herdman (Wellington North) enquired bs to thd duties ot the General Manager, whose :i t salary, from July to March, 1808 09, was stated At 11150 , Atr. (Avon) said there was nothing Sn the document read by Mr. Massey to connect the Government with it lhere could bo ■ ' xo doubt but that the Department was doing godd work i i MroMabsey said that the clerks would not f Vβ required to look for advertisements in ipaper l ; which criticised the Government freely ' Sir Joseph Oh' , Mr. Massey Well, wtat about The DomqaoN? Other papers are in the same position Continuing, Mr. .Mossey said that if his word iwas doubted, the proper thing to do was to set i rcp a committee If that were done he would E, Iβ able tp prove everything ,he had said up to I the hdt Was that good enough? ~ Sir Joseph What do you want a committee \ for? ' & Mr. Maesey To provo that this is a political f Department, and that tho documents are 3 genuine j ( / Mr Massey said further that it would be f. found that the documents for use in con (' section witt the speeches of Government sup I portefc, Vere ruled in black ink; and'ithcrso for I nso in connection <-with the speeches o£ Opposi-. !„ tion supporters Wo luled in red ink- (fiiud [ langhterJ) The cost of the Department was ' ' out of fill proportion to the value of the adver- • Mr. Stallworthy (Kaipara) said he believed that a good many private firms wore paying as muoh as tho Govomme,nt for advertisements He thonght that tho office wps a wise and busi aesshk© one ' m "The Dominion" Boycott. " T Mr. Eisher (Wellington Central) Will the .Minister m charge of the Department (the j Hon. D. Bnddo) tell us why the Department Tβi iusee to advertise in The Dominion? • Tho Hon H M'&nzie lOuestiort' ?' Mr. Buddo. This Us nothing at all to do f -jnth. it > i, The There is no item here for Mr. Wnght (Wellington South) drew attenfeon to an item of £\xfi for "subscnptions to 1 newspapers" Newspapers in'thich advertise- : menw were given were always required to for-1 :, .TEard a free copy of the paper containing tho I , ftdvortisement, so that these papers wcro not v purchased for the purpose of reviewing the | advertisements Evidontly the Department puri chased these napers all tho year round -to studj ' the political items 1 Sir Joseph Word said he did not read two political articles a week He attached very Jittlo importance to them Tho articles written in the Opposition papers wero not worth , heading <■ Mr Wright repeated that there was evidence [ to ehow that tho papers were gone through t for other purpo es than advertising I The motion was rejected bj 43 votes to 26 \ Tho vote for tho Department of was ( , ihen, agreed to. / r ' "'