A LIVELY MEETING

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 129, 2 June 1937, Page 7

A LIVELY MEETING

GOVERNMENT'S POLICY

(By Telegraph—Pres» Association.)

'■■• DUNEDIN, June 1. A lively arid frequently amusing meeting of radio listeners filled the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall tonight, when representatives of the'B stations and local organisations that have used or benefited by such stations presented the case for private enterprise in broadcasting and endeavoured to show cause why the Government should be urged to redeem its pre-election promises and either buy out or subsidise the local broadcasting units. The Mayor (the Hey. E. T. Cox), who convened the ■; meeting, was in the chair, and rather took the .wind out of everyone's • sails by opening proceedings with a recital of the Government's intentions received by him that afternoon from the Acting Prime Minister (the Hon. P. Fraser). He stated that the Government was prepared to allow station 4ZB to remain on the air, to buy out those who wished to sell, and to subsidise such stations as might be considered essential.

The case for the B stations was volubly put in the first instance by Mr. Harold Booth, of the Radio Listeners'■ League, whb was followed by the Rev. L. B. Neale, the Rev. A. C. W. Standage (representing the broadcasting committee :of the Presbyterian Church), Mr. J. Roberts (Mayor of Cromwell), and Mr. W-. J.Bardsley. But the issue did not go unchallenged. Several more or less incoherent speakers and a host of interjectors were inclined to suggest that the meeting had been convened in the interests of the proprietors of the B stations, and the Hon. M. Connelly, M.L.C.,' and Dr. D. G. McMillan, M.P., took up the cudgels very determinedly on the part of the Government. The result was a hectic round of heckling "and interjection, with several sharp reprimands from the chair, before the meeting carried, by no means unanimously, the following resolution:— "That this meeting of citizens of Dunedin views with the gravest concern the suggestion that the local B stations may be forced to close down as the result of the Government's policy and calls on the Government to carry out its pledges to these stations in their entirety, and that, further, the Government be requested to take a plebiscite of listeners on the retention or otherwise of the B stations, and that in the event of the vote going for retention, the Government be asked whether" such stations are to be maintained by revenue from advertising or by means of an adequate subsidy." It was stated by Mr. Booth that an application had been made for permission to broadcast the meeting, but it was refused by the Minister.