STATE EXPENDITURE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 80, 1 October 1931, Page 22

STATE EXPENDITURE

ANTI-BOARD HUMBUG

Another attempt has recently been i niide to make tho public believe that it a Broadcasting Control Board is set up, as proposed by the Broadcasting Uill, the Government will have to m *. a considerable • xpenditure, for the buying out of the company, for the financing of the board's earlier opera-, tions, and for the provisions of such new broadcasting stations as are required for the extension of the service. A quite elaborate display of figures was i^sod to.support,this gloomy prophecy. Tt is'just like all the other arguments that have been brought against the board plan: there is nothing in it. In the first place, the buying out of the company reduces to one item only —the purchase of the equipment which the company has actually in use in the carrying on o£ the service. A fancy price for this oquipment may look alaiining, but the actual price is to be fixed "by agreement or bj' arbitration, and a fancy figure will bo severely de. flated. By the end of this year the depreciation fund set apart by the company will (judging by. the amount reached at tho middle of _ 1930) have made a very laige hole in the 6riginal; cost of the equipment, and as replacements and maintenance, are all, under the company's agreement^ expenditures out of revenue, they cannot be charged up for reimbursement. The cost of this purchase will therefore not bo a formidable) figure, and when transferred to the board by the Government .will be 'well within its readily available resources. It must not be forgotten that, even if the number of licences in force is not increased, the board will, on the present basis of payment, receive revenue at the rate of at least £75,000 a year. This means that it could spend more money on programmes and salaries than the present company, and pay off tho whole cost of tho equipment taken over, with the first year's revenue. The broadcasting company has operated throughout—or at least until July, 1930, with £35,000 of loan money, apart from its own:capital (under £14,000). A board can, if necessary, finance itself as far as may be necessary by loans in its first stages, but it is evident that no great measure of borrowing will be necessary, unless it is unwisely driven into too hasty a programme of station building. ..,-.-■' Broadcasting in New Zealand has been established since 1925 on a foundation of contributions by listeners, and those contributions have reached a total which at that date was certainly not generally'anticipated. The fees are not burdensome, but they are ample; and it should be accepted as a working principle that the service can, and should, stand on its own feet. There is no ■ need for; Government subsidy in any form, and to pretend that direct Government expenditure on the service will be necessary and a handicap to thecountry is merely pretence.