THE PRESS AND THE TELEGRAPH.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 616, 9 June 1876, Page 3

THE PRESS AND THE TELEGRAPH.

I ~ - (Dunedin] 'Evening- -Star,}

' The near approach otthe Parliamentary session, and'the Necessity fo* early attention being directed to the matter; must be out apolosj for referring to 1 a subject which, though it more immediately affects ourselves, is, wetake leave tothink,inot without interest to the public. We allude td lhe' tariff for ' Press .telegrams 'in its relation to evening journals. 1 The inequalities and. positive injustice of a 5 tarifE^ttiat J entails upon evening papers a charge of more than 26 per cent, oven andT above what is paid by ,morning papers Have been demonstrated in these coluknhs. and in the' columns of htany of bar contemporaries contra., diction of the facts We and they have from jtima to time brought forward in support of the position we have taken up is; itepiossible. Naturally theri ; Ourreadere*may inquire, “ It sybuti position/Isuas as you say, unassailable,' whydoes thedepartmentref use to concede it ? ” We hope before we have iddflfc With the subject to show- that; thmxeasbn assigned by the department fpr refusing to . meet ;the demands of evening journals is an excuse—l a begging of the question ; bat before doing so, and for the better; understandingjof the question, wo will, sketch aa briefly as possible the circumstances that haver brCnght it to its present stage. Alter the tariff had been tested by a couple,of years’ experience, it became evident to the proprietors of evening journals that, with perhaps two or three exceptions iff'large towns, Wherei the prospect of profitable resnltr might jastify the outlay,anything beyond p minimum use, ?of the wires; While the. ,evening papery were so heavily haiidicappe9, meant in ordinary ; cases an expensive, put ineffectual cpmpeti*-. tern with' the Morning, journals. % In the -proprietor of the Meting Star addressed t torthe Commissioner of Telegraphs' a memo, .rial, whieU met with the approval and. received the signature of the owners of nearly every evening jpurnalin the colony, setting forth the injustice ofi J thd ’ tariff for; Press' messages, ?and asking for such concessions ip favor of evening^'Tapbr l * l the 'department might see its way to granting without prejudice .. to the public service. Sir Jtuius STbgel was then Commissioner, but-lest any action he might take in./ the- matter should, by reason of his- connection with the Press, lj6 misinterpreted, he relegated the memorial ( tbhis colleague, the Colonial Secretary, for consideratiftn.j Dr-PoUenmade short work iof it ; and, with the politeness with which geutfeman pan-dismiss ,troublesorao matters, the memorialists were informed teat, after M due consideration, the Commissioner oonld not see his way to granting their request.” Nothing further was done /till'last session,' when the -matter Was taken liuplby the proprietors of the Auckland Star , who, thinking that tee f ailurepf the previous i attempt had n|e» pwing tb the indeffniteneas of the con ossei,on& asked for, approached, the .Public Petitions Committee with a memorial i bristling with facts and figures, which must have exercised a strong influence with the House if there had been time to have examined them arid to have heard the evidence ‘Messrs Heed and; Brett were prepared :to tender to the committee. But it un- : fortunately happened that the initiatory step was taken when the attention of the House would on no account be diverted from the all important subject then under consideration —the Abolition of Provinces—and when the memorial did reach the committee, that body was. on the point of drawing its labors for the session to a close. Thus it was that the matter again received scanty consideration. On October 15th, five days before the House prorogued, Mr A. J. Richmond called attention to it by asking, without notice, “whether the Government would relax the rule with reference to Press telegrams, so as to permit the transmission during tee day of five hundred i words ?” The reply made by Mr Reynolds,

I who was at that timd at the head of the Telegraph Department, is thus recorded in Hansard: — 0 <,J ' ' k “After a very careful investigation the Go vernment had come to the decision to allow 200 words at Is per 100 words to be supplied to the evening papers during the day. He might say that beyond that the Government were not prepared to grant any further concessions. Were f urther ; concessions granted it mould he at a considerable loss to the department, and also at the risk of clogging the mires at several stations. ' This, would cause dissatisfaction among thosOwhb' were in the habit of paying the full rptp of Is for ten words. The Press telegrimSadid not recoup the expenses of sending the messages. The charge of Is per 100 words, when they considered the cost of paper and payment of messengers for delivering the ; telegrams; ’ did not meet" ex-; penses. If any 1 concessions' were to be granted it would involve a large increase to the staff of the deparment A commission had been appointed/lin the United Kingdom to consider the.'same subject, and the report of a committeeiappointed by the Lords of the Treasury, r dated. 17th July, 1875, to investigate the causes of the increased cost of the telegraph sendee since its acquisition by British .Government* dn pointing put some of the sources of loss, remarked—he would quote their own words—- * The Press tariff charged in accordance with Bectioh v l'o‘ Pf the Tplegraph Pf ;'lß6B"is another fruitful <s6urce of loss. [' One shilling is charged for every words transmitted diirfrlg the night and the same ' for every 75 wbfds transmitted during the day, two pence only ih addition being charged for the same matter forwarded to'different addresses. The consequences of such ■ a system mast be obvious to every inquirer * Bren at ordinary tidies the wires are always largely occupied by Press work, and, at extraordinary times Othfey are absoltttelj'' flooded with the molt nnremUnerative traffic which not only fills the wires unduly to the exclusion of .better paying maCtPf,' bdt hece&itaWs a much larger staff than wonld r be necessary with a more reasonable.system.’ He had not the least doubt that if the House were also to appoint a committee, it wouldrbe found that the Press telegraph messages involved a ( loss to the department,', bhtdt' be dnipMaible to i grant any further concessions so as to block thp . wires: r during the day. 11 He thdught the newspapers ought to be satisfied with the privileges they-enjoyed.-i: They Had the opportunity of sending as many words as they pleased during the night, at the rate of >ls per 100 words j and they were allowed to. send 200 words during the day air the same ’ rate.” . r ~ . , ..... .■ , We mention, in passing, that the italics m dhe 1 above extracts are our own. At the evening sitting on the -same day that Mr Richmond's question was put, Sir George GrCy, who exhibited ,the warmest interest in the question, took "advantage of the opppr T tunity'that-was afforded' by the motion to go into Committee of 'Siipply to provoke the r Acting-Commissioner into further' discussion, which he did by moving—“ That it is expedient to make some reduction op. the telegraphic' 7 rates now charged to evening papers for the transmission of their'messages during, the day,” bSir George stated; the case of the evening papers very tempo->' >ately indeed when hejSaid, no 1 ov/oteod yJ * “At present the evening papers in the’ different parts of the colony were charged £2 7s 8d for , each 1000 words transmitted .during the day,.j?hereas thp rjmorning papers could have, the sapae number sof Words transr Fmitted for lOs 6d. The evening papers were -allowed to receive_ only 20ffw,ords during the (day at the same rates as the morning papers, ich'n ironainn for the difference ,be- i tween the tW6 charges was the "necessity fenr keeping the wires clear from ‘being clogged during the day ; to which the answer given was that the regulations made in the Telegraph Department'amply against; deigning j the wires, by fixing the length of piiesskges that could be sent at any one time, that I this precaution was. regarded by the evening papers as a mere excuse, because the department would; take messages of. any length the; evening .papers if they paid - for theni, and thit'' the . messages they, now asked to'be sent at reduced rates were repeatedly transmitted, at the present; rates, and the wires had never yet been clogged, by such imessagesi ' A 'short debate, which" we reproduced, followed The Government were, of course* 1 hostile; 'and the motion was negatived 1 on the Voices, but the ayes included many men pf Weight in the House, and they -weye, not. feW in number. The ActiPg 'Commissioner ofTelegraphs repeatedinuoii thathe had' said dhe afternoon sitting, and . again laid great stress on the report of the English. Comnussion. TTia statements tO the HoPSii Weird inade confusedly aud were ’ occasionally ihaudible, the consequence being in, several mem- . ber’s minds there arose a misconception as to 1 their ireal bearing. rThe speeches of fAtkirisoh* Mir Pyke, and Mr Pitzherbert .show that they were -Pnder ; i the impression that the arguments of • the acting Opmmis.smher of ■ Telegraphs were intended to Establish two things—first, that the telc- ' graph! in New ZeSand ds at present conducted at an annual loss of £12,000 .; and idecoud, that the Press rates are mainly conducive to that loss, which, of necessity, will be increased if they, are reduced.; To pfove' the fallkhy of this'second. , premiss, and, how utterly erroheottsVere most of Mr Reynold's conclusions on the ,subject, the task to which we' intend addressing ourselves in a future article. ‘ I ; V><\>Tobe dontrnued,~\