PUBLICITY ABHORRED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 311, 23 March 1928, Page 14

PUBLICITY ABHORRED

SWIMMING CENTRE PERTURBED ATTACK ON THE PRESS Contending that Press reports of meetings were ill-advised, ill-con-sidered and should not have ap- | peared in the newspapers, and that in future if any business likely to harm the sport was being discussed that it be taken in committee, Mr. Prust-Stewart made a vigorous attack on the Press at the meeting of the Auckland Swimming Centre last evening. OBJECTION was taken mostly to a report of a special meeting called at the Tepid Baths last w r eek concerning the swimming of Misses E. Stockley and K. Miller in invitation scratch races, which was attended by only one reporter, a Sun man. The question was opened by Mr. R. Brighton, Ponsonby, objecting to a letter received from the Mount Eden Club upholding the action of Mr. H. Moore and Mr. J. Enwright as members of the programme committee, who drew up the Olympic carnival events. He contended that the letter was out of order, and pointed out that no minutes had been kept of the meeting, although standing orders were suspended, and it was a duly constituted meeting. That night, Messrs. D. Mulvihill, A. E. Edenborough and himself supported the committee, although his name was brought through the Press as one of the- protesters. Mr. J. Enwright. chairman, said that had nothing to do with the letter. It was purely a domestic affair of the Mount Eden Club. “How did the Press know of the meeting?” asked Mr. Prust-Stewart. Mr. Brighton: “I told the reporters.” “It appeared in The Sun,” said Mr. R. Cowley, “and there was only one reporter present, but the other papers had it. How is that? You can’t tell me that one man handed his copy to the other two. The Press should be present, and I am a great believer of everything going out to the public.” While admitting that the Press could do a lot of good, Mr. Enwright said it had done more to harm the sport this year than anything else because of the publicity given the meetings of the centre where there had been so much petty strife. “THE SUN man saw me before the meeting, after I had told another newspaper man there was no meeting, but I could not shake him off,” added Mr. Enwright. It was at this stage that Mr. PrustStewart gave his opinion of the Press, and said that anything detrimental to the centre should not be allowed to be published. The subject dropped here, and although revived in a different discussion later on, nothing further was done.