The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, November 2, 1912. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1018, 2 November 1912, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, November 2, 1912. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The member for this electorate Is purturbed about the press. I*ike the notorious Mr Payne, he views the press as a giant evil. Speaking at a dinner in Wellington on Monday, he is reported to have said that they must make up their minds to this : “that the fight iu the next few years at any rate would be a light on the platform against the press, That was one thing staring them in the face to-day, and it must be taced seriously and squarely. All over the country they had papers that in the past were Liberal being bought up by the Conservative Party and others started to create a public opinion that would keep them iu power as long as possible. The platform would be their only remedy against that campaign. They must use it to make their actions iu Parliament properly understood.” We should like to bear more about this buyiug-up process. We have a fairly intimate knowledge of the press, so far as this province is concerned, and we do not know of one journal which has prostituted itself in the manner suggested by Mr Robertson. Because the press severely chastised Messrs Robertson and Payne for having broken their election pledges surely that is no justification for such ridiculous statements. Apart from this, as is pointed out by a contemporary, Mr Robertson fails to see that without the aid of the press a platform campaign is useless. He or any other politician may address a few hundred people from a platform, but unless the press helps him by carrying his j

woids to its thousands of readers, his speech might just as well remain unspoken. Mr Robertson’s remarks no doubt reflect the illgrounded opinions of many others who do not trouble to think .out the matter, and speak offhand. They appear to forget the enormous space devoted by the press generally to the speeches, great part of them mere twaddle, Of political candidates, no matter what side they espouse. Editorial comment does not occupy a tithe of the space accorded to platform speeches. The difference is made up entirely by point and relevancy —qualities too often sadly lacking in political platform speeches.