THAT SUPPRESSED SPEECH.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1291, 21 November 1911, Page 6

THAT SUPPRESSED SPEECH.

ME'. FISHER DEALS WITH THE MATTER. That report of Mr. Massey's speech at Winton'which did not appear in at least one of the leading Government journals in this country was referred to by Mr. i'isher last night. Mr. Fisher said that i the report, one column long, was sent by tho Press Association, a non-party organisation. "And," said Mr. Usher, "tho only morning paper in New Zealand which did not nublish.it was the 'NewZealand Times.' Whereupon the "Times" representative at the press table said in a tone of protest: "It came through at 1 o'clock in the morning. Tho wires were down." Mr. Fisher: "Well, might 1 ask you this question: Why didn't it appear the next morning?" The pressman: "His speech from Timaru appeared on Monday, and that made up lor it." v - Mr. I'isher: "At any.rate, the Winton one has not appeared. I am not saying for a moment that this method—and to my mind it is a bad method—is carried on by one paper only. But the fact that the wires wero down was not published in the paper." Tho pressman: "Tliero was a telegram stating that the wires were down." Mr. Fisher had to admit that ho had not seen it. "Hut," ho asked, "how did it happen that the speech appeared in Tiik DoMisros?"

The .pressman: "Because Ihejr ■ missed half the morning mails. Ho fair." Mr. Fisher explained that 1m had no thought of being unfair, but all the inside knowledge was not available to him. TWO may state for the benefit of Mr. Fisher and the public generally that he was net in any way unfair in tho statement lie made concerning tho suppression of the report of Mr. Mnswy's Winton meeting. Moreover, h« was accurat® in his statements, whereas tue lepicteiitativo of our contemporary was not. The message did not arrive at 1 o'clock in (he morning; it arrived at a little after 2 o'clock. It was actually completed . at 1.56 a.m., and immediately font to the newspaper offices, which art* both handy to tho Telegraph Office. Tim Dominion did not miss any of its mails through publishing tho speech—it went to press at' the usual hour. To pretend that a report of Mr. Massey's Timaru speech compensated for the suppression of his Win ton speech, in the I'rimc Minister's own electorate, which produced the most emphatic demonstration in favour of the Reform parly yet given during the present election campaign, is about as weal; and .puerile an assertions could well be made. Mr. Fisher may be interested to learn that nuite a number of morning papers of Saturday last which have eomc to hand contain reports of tho speech, ranging up to one column in length, liut it apparently was of far too damaging a nature from tho Government's point of view for the Ministerial journal at Wellington to publish. So it wa3 suppressed.]