The Daily News. MONDAY, MARCH 6, 1922. BRITISH JOURNALISM.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 March 1922, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, MARCH 6, 1922. BRITISH JOURNALISM.

On the occasion of the recent dinner of the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association, Mr. C. P. Skerrett, K.C., was an honored guest, and delivered an address, primarily intended as a means for expressing his gratitude, as president of the Welfare League, for the encouragement and assistance given to the League in disseminating its literature, but he, unfortunately, proceeded to make a comparison between the Press of Great Britain and that of the Dominion, which, in effect, was unstinted eulogy for the latter and severe condemnation for most of the former. In introducing Mr. Skerrett to the gathering, Mr. C. W. Earle (President of the Association) paid a tribute to the guest’s “soundness of judgment.” Possibly, had Mr. Earle been fully seized with the nature of the strictures Mr. Skerrett was about to pass on the British Press, he would have spoken in other terms. Mr. Skerrett has, of course, had many years’ experience of this country’s journalistic methods, ideals and principles, while his recent tour overseas was far too brief even for Mr. Skerrett to give that close study to the British Press as to fit him to express a reliable judgment thereon. We do not propose to comment on Mr. Skerrett’s literary ethics as applied to the Press in general. While accepting, with becoming gratification, the praise so lavishly bestowed on the Dominion Press for its high standard, editorially and commercially, and the thorough earnestness of its efforts to guide the public aright, we would dissociate New Zealand journalists from the indictment framed by Mr. Skerrett against the Press of the Motherland. His denunciation of the evening newspapers in England is scathingly complete, with two exceptions, perhaps. He attributed the driving force to “pure commercialism,” and characterised their issues as “a disgrace to the journalism in England,” adding that they frankly gave mere racing news and nothing else. There was a somewhat grudging admission that the morning papers are “of better quality,” but “very few are independent,” the rich Jews having a preponderating influence -in many journals, “which are used as implements to forward or defend particular interests, both party and commercial.” The result, he claims, “is not satisfying to a mind trained in the mentality and ideals of the New Zealand Pressmen.” Fortunately, Mr. Skerrett admitted that he may be all wrong, but the impressions are those he formed “as a stranger.” Evidently he does not comprehend the place the small evening sheets occupy in the daily life of | the people in the Homeland. It caters for a large section of the i public which does not read, mark, learn and inwardly digest a heavy meal of Press matter, but bolts condensed doses, including racing news, and enjoys this tabloid form all the more if served up with condiments that appeal to the taste. If New Zealand had anything approaching the population of Britain the same kind of evening journals would meet with popular approval here. There is nothing “disgraceful to the community” in supplying the kind of news for which the demand is insistent, any more than providing the bon bouche or appetiser as an introduction to a, feast. As to pure commercialism, that is necessary, even though it may be an evil, for it is the commercial side of a. newspaper which renders the literary sjde possible, but, what Mr. Skerrett means to infer is that the British newspapers are dominated by that commercialism which will uphold any views at a price. Such a sweeping indictment comes with special ill-grace from a member of a profession whose business it is to earn fees by the advocacy or defence of causes the least said about which the better. Even in New Zealand the sstablishmeiit of party papers

is not unknown. Party papers, however, can be just as honest and sincere in their views as indepenournals. While the Dominion Press has freely helped Mr. Skerrett’s nurseling—the Welfare League—yet he was informed, while in England, that the three movements commenced there on the lines of that league had received no assistance whatever from the Press. The connection between that' experience and Mr. Skerrett’s ill-judged indictment of the British Press may not be too remote to trace. Whatever eulogy the Dominion Press deserves is due to the fact that its high ideals and literary aims came originally from the Motherland, the leading journals of which still enjoy and deserve a high reputation. It was particularly unfortunate that such charges should have been made at a gathering of Dominion Pressmen, who might thereby be associated with the indictment. Supposing a learned member of the English Bar paid a flying visit to New Zealand, and on returning Home made a sweeping indictment of the New Zealand Bar, what would be said? Unfortunately it is becoming a habit all too common with some of our leading people to find fault and condemn Old England and all its works, with which they can only have the scantiest knowledge, but to the careful observer there is still much to respect and admire in institutions which make England the greatest Power, in the truest sense, in the world to-day. The fact is that a colonial, however eminent he may be in his own country, is only a “small pea” when he arrives in London, and this realisation often comes as an unpleasant jar to his own sense of importance.