BRUSH WITH THE RAILWAY DEPT.

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 202, 15 November 1927, Page 1

BRUSH WITH THE RAILWAY DEPT.

How THE SUN Came to be Put Off the Train INCIDENTS ON THE NORTH LINE The arrogance of newspaper monopolists knows no bounds. Incidents which occurred on the North train in June last when the Railway Department refused to carry The Sun newspapers for nearly a month caused a great deal of comment in Whangarei at the time. In view of recent developments Sun readers may be in- > terested in the story.

The Railway Department advertised that on and after May 25, a train would leave at 6.56 p.m., reaching Whangarei at 12.31 p.m. This train connected with the 4 p.m. train from Auckland to Helensville. On Wednesday, May 25, the department accepted THE SUN parcels and conveyed them without question to their respective destinations. On May 26 THE SUN representative was informed, a few minutes before the train left, that THE SUN parcels would not be carried. Consequently it was necessary to resort to a certain amount of strategy. The parcels were consigned as ordinary goods and were accepted. THE SUN representatives travelled on the train to watch developments. At Helensville they found the Publisher of the “Star” searching the guard’s van. He checked over the guard’s waybill and discovering THE SUN’S parcels appealed to the guard to put them off the train. The next few minutes were rather exciting and the argument ended by the guard signalling the train to proceed, leaving a discomfited and very angry “Star” publisher standing on the platform.

Then he got busy with the wires and, as a result, THE SUN parcels were put off at Maungaturoto. On May 27 we record the following letter from the Railway Department: I beg to bring under your notice that the Brett Printing and Publishing Company have the sole and exclusive right to the carriage of daily newspapers by the trains which leave Helensville for Whangarei at 6.56 p.m., Mondays to Fridays inclusive, and at 7.50 p.m. on Saturdays, and no daily papers other than those of the abovementioned company can be accepted for carriage by these trains. Tours faithfully, J. G. RICKERBT. District Traffic Manager. Naturally, THE SUN was not going to take this sort of thing lying down. We communicated with the Minister for Railways protesting against the discrimination shown by the Railway Department, and submitted that it was the duty of the department to carry whatever goods that were offered, provided that the freight was paid and the regulations were complied with. THE SUN continued to dispatch its papers to Whangarei and to the complete mystification of the Auckland “Star” whose spies infested the railway station, the papers arrived at Whangarei for several days. We adopted the simple expedient of sending a passenger whose capacious luggage contained the papers intended for Whangarei subscribers. The Railway Department then made the mistake of forcibly seizing a passenger’s luggage and, after opening it and discovering that it contained copies of THE SUN, unceremoniously bundled it off the train. We sent the following telegram to the Minister of Railways: “Protest strongly against railway officials violating passenger's luggage Helensville yesterday, removing same from train at request Auckland ‘Star.’.” THE SUN Newspapers, Ltd. I The Minister telegraphed a reply that the matter would receive immediate attention. Further correspondence ensued and it took the department nearly a fortnight to discover that THE SUN’S contention was perfectly proper and legal. On June 11, the Divisional Superintendent advised us that THE SUN newspapers would be accepted for carriage on the Auckland-Whangarei night trains at ordinary newspaper rates. On June 28, or about a month after the trouble commenced, the Managing Director of THE SUN received the following letter from the .Hon. the Act-ing-Minister of Railways: “With reference to your representations in connection with the conveyance of your company's newspapers from Helensville to Whangarei I have to inform you that 1 have arranged for the Divisional Superintendent, Auckland, to call upon you personally at an early date and explain the department's position in ti matter.” This call has not yet been made, but we desire to pay a tribute to the busl-

ness instinct of the department, which, when it received our claim for the loss owing to the non-delivery of certain papers, at 2d per copy, insisted on being put on the wholesalers’ basis of Is 6d a dozen! We conceded the point and made no claim in respect to the serious damage we incurred through inability to deliver our paper as early as our competitor to Whangarei subscribers for about ten days, pending a decision on the matter.

THE SUN GIVES MORE NEWS

Interesting Comparison of Local Dailies Careful records taken over the past three months shows that THE SUN publishes more news than any other local paper, and incidentally more than any other daily paper in New Zealand. the 13 weeks ended Saturday,! A October 29, the total news and reading matter in column inches of space in the three Auckland dailes was as follow:

It will be noticed from a study of these figures that each week, with one exception, THE SUN was in the lead, grr-"-

Second Third THE SUN. Local Paper. Local Paper. 13,389 10,988 12,603 13,537 11,496 12,432 13,715 12,273 13,702 13,379 12,938 11,973 13,942 12,877 12,108 13,749 13,084 12,545 13,837 12,667. 12,248 13,763 12,496 12,808 13.538 13.025 12,272 1 4.^74 13.16S 12,536 12.77.*: 12,530 12,657. 13,899 13>32 12,755 12,680