Reports of Public Meetings.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 106, 19 May 1883, Page 3

Reports of Public Meetings.

S ■» We have had occasion in more than one instance to call attention to the apparent want of courtesy shown to the representatives of the Press by some of the promoters of public meetings, and principally those connected with movements purporting to be for the moral and religious welfare of the community. At the Wesleyan Church, last evening, the Rev. W. Morley referred to the notice tliat -was being taken by the Press at Home of the movements and doings of tlie Salvation Army, and the impartial publicity the Press gave to its public meetings and services, and said this was /" ought to be. He hal often noticed that the report of some amusement, such as hprse racing for instance, frequently occupied a column or two of a newspaper, while a religious meeting was passed over, or only referred to in a few lines. Not that he objected to reports of races, as, if they were matters of public interest, the papers ought to zeport them ; but he thought more attention might be given, than was sometimes the ease, to meetings of a religious character. We could have informed the lecturer that there is sometimes a very good reason for the seeming lack of publicity given by a local paper of the meetings of -religious and temperance bodies, __c; and that that reason was even manifest at the meeting then being held. We refer to the fact that not unfrequently no provision whatever is made for the convenience of a reporter, who does not, in fact, as a rule, appeal to be expected at all. On the occasion referred to there was no light, and not even a seat provided for any representative of the Press, and our reporter had to take his notes under considerable difficulty. It frequently happens, too, that admission to a religious meeting is by ticket. A complimentary one is never dreamt of being forwarded .'..-_ the office of the local journal, and - '_r_-2 times that when a reporter goes to Te door without one he is not even _..7>i-d inside. This has happened seve- ::_! times within our knowledge, and yet Vie promoters of lectures, picnics, cuter- ■ fiinments, &c, expect their proceedings to be duly lengthily and truthfully reyrbi'fed, a thing, we need scarcely say, is :3io_j.lly impossible, unless the Press can __s.v_ proper access to all that is going on. It is no wonder amusements and meetii{:s of merely secular interest are fully .eported, as at these the convenience of the Press is generally considered, and we think the promoters of church meetings, &c, would do well to take a leaf out of the book of other caterers for public entertainment, and furnish those facilities to the Press which are necessary in order to give that publicity to such meetings which appears to be so much desired.