A PUBLIC PROTEST.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1174, 8 July 1911, Page 4

A PUBLIC PROTEST.

We have found it necessary on a number of occasions to make public protest against tho partisan nature of political and other reports dispatched from Wellington through the medium of the Press Association. A glaring instance of unfair treatment on a most important occasion has just occurred in connection with the speech delivered by Mr. Massey at the Town Hall on Thursday evening. No moro important political speech has been delivered in New Zealand for years past The occasion was one of exceptional interest to the whole country, and in every part of New. Zealand the speech which was to place before the people of the Dominion the definite platform of the Reform party was being looked forward to with keen attention. One would have expected that in such circumstances the Press Association would have made special arrangements to ensure that this privileged news agency would at least have taken steps to ensure that the press of the country should receive a fair summary of the programme put forward, and that some indication would have been given of the explanatory remarks which accompanied it. It would be thought that the Press Association would at least have added a fair record of any resolution carried at the meeting., But what do wc find is actually done 1 The whole of the proceedings at this notable political gathering are covered by a message of twelve lines. The whole of the country press of the Dominion received only a twelve-line message. This may appear incredible to our readers. They may conceive it to be impossible that so gross an injustice would be done the Leader of the Reform party and the public—for tho public is as much concerned as the newspapers—but that there can be no room for doubt, we reprint below a copy of the actual message sent and published: Mr. Massey, Leader of the Opposition, addressed a monster meeting in the Town Hall to-night. His speech was mainly on the lines of that delivered in Hastings early in the week. He dealt with tho increased taxation, secrecy of the cost of votes, land tenure, Native lauds, administration and reform in tho Legislative Council. The audieuco passed a vote of thanks and confidence in Mr. Massey for his able address. This is the Press Association report, taken from the Wairarapa Age, of tlie largest and most important political gathering held in Wellington for years past—a meeting to which the local papers each devoted several columns of their space. But quite apart from its failure to correctly express the nature of the speech delivered by Mr. Massey, it is distinctly unsatisfactory if not misleading as to the resolution actually carried at the meeting. It states that "a vote of thanks and confidence, in Mr. Massey for his 'able- address" was passed. Tho aci tual motion carried was perhapjj the

strongest that has ever been carried at a public political gathering against the present Government. It read as follows: —

I hat the people of Wellington, assembled in public meeting, thank Mr. Masscy for his able and instructive address iinil endorse the policy which he has expounded; and, further, express the opinion that the time has arrived ivli?n in the interests of good government and wise legislation, the electors of the Dominion should take prompt steps to have the present Government removed from office."

So far as the metropolitan papers arc concerned their report was almost equally inadequate. It consisted of about two-thirds of a column of matter, and was really ludicrous if treated as a summary of the platform put forward. The editor of one Ministerial metropolitan journal described it in a telegram to Mr. Massey as the worst report on record and "simply shameful," and the editor of an Opposition journal in a southern city summed it up as "absolutely rotten." This report also condensed the resolution carried as merely a vote of thanks and confidence. AVc have referred to this matter at sbmc_ length not merely because a serious injustice has" been done to the Reform party, but because the free and fair dissemination of news by the Press Association is a question of very great public importance. It should be said in fairness to pur Ministerial contemporary, which holds the night subagency of the Association,.that it was not responsible for the messages scut out. Moreover, the manager of the Association, when the matter was brought under his notice, took such steps'as were possible to remedy the failure of his agency to meet the needs of the occasion by sending out a supplementary message to such newspapers as had not already received copies of the Wellington papers containing the report of the meeting. Unfortunately, however, the damage done by the inadequate, and in a measure misleading, reports previously dispatched and printed cannot be entirely repaired. Wo cannot picture a Minister of the Crown being similarly treated under such circumstances, and it is an unpleasant reflection that what purports to bo an independent news agency could fail so signally in this instance to carry _ out_ the purpose to which it owes its right to exist.