Sir George Grey on a Free Press and Telegraph Monopoly.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3046, 19 November 1878, Page 1

Sir George Grey on a Free Press and Telegraph Monopoly.

The,following is the statement-of the Premier in the House on the above subject :— Sir, —Before proceeding to.the business on the Order Paper, I wish to ( make a statement ,to the House; and, to put myself in order, I will conclude by moving, " That the Souse d® now adjournT" The subject on which I wish to speak, is suggested' to me by the fact that 1 certain questions' are to be asked of the Government to-day inflation to the Telegraph Department! The same subject was bro,ught up a tew days ago, but the Attorney-General was so anxious to proceed with the business that I had no opportunity of making the statement which I am now about to .make, and which I think it is necessary I should lay before the House and the public at this stage, of the proceedings. If this explanation is not given, an erroneous inpression may be created in the public mind. The question at issue is one of the greatest magnitude. .. The question which is now being raised here is one which has on many occasions' agitated ether parts of the world. It is the question "whether a monopoly should be allowed% or not in cases of this sort. It is- the same question of the liberty of printing which was fought out in England by Milton in 1645, now- being fought out here at the antipodes in the nineteenth century; and I hare no doubt it will be now as hotly contested as it was then. For a new instrument has been discovered for the education of men. It is the handmaid of, and is dependent on, the printing press, yet is greater than the master it serves, for the electric telegraph can momentarily collect, throughout the day, all the transactions of the,greater part of the human race, and the sayings or writings of the wisest men duripg that period of time, and instantaneously transmit them to all parts of the world for ibe instruction of mankind. Such an educator ha.s never before been known. Its effects on the future can only be vaguely estimated. No nation has yet thoroughly appreciated its value,-or fully availed itself of the services it is capable of rendering; nor has the .

best mode in which a state can apply this new . instrument to the education jand* development of a people been yet (ascertained or determined. But it is the 'duty of a state to see that this powerful .implement now placed in its hands is used jfor the good of all, and sedulously to devise the best means of employing it. To place it as, a monopoly in the hands'of a few men, as has been done here, is to enrich them by the lasting injury of an entire people, and to wantonly mis-apply one - of the greatest gifts of Providence. I 'think I may make all this clear to the House in a very short time. When we came into office we found a monopoly in existence. We found that, there was what ■was called the Press Agency, which had obtained a monopoly in this way: Messages called "collect" messages were, under the regulations 'issued by the then 'Government; not allowed to be sent or 'received by any person-from the Australian colonies to New Zealand, or vice \versa ; it was stated in a circular letter jthat these were entirely abolished; but they were not entirely abolished S-j-one privileged party was allowed to jreceive''collect." messages. That party was the Press Agency, consisting of two gentlemen. They had a monopoly. I found that there was a general impression •that.nothing could be more detrimental to the interests of the colony than that 'this ;should be the case. I think that; if even there were two or three' Press telegraph associations in existence, it would still be jmost detrimental to the interests of, the jcolony. At home, it has been recognised jthat it is desirable to have as many asso- • jciations of this kind as possible. In 'England, a leading member of the staff jof the Times has stated that nothing, -.could be more detrimental to the interests jof the country than that only one or even ja few associations should: be allowed to furnish telegraphic news to the public. The same authority says that, if such a monopoly existed-as that which I have described, public opinion would not be allowed the full play that it ought to have; [that in fact, public opinion would be stereotyped in one direction: and we all know in what direction that would have been here. This is the opinion of the leading minds of Europe. I considered this matter care- ! fully, and became thoroughly convinced that that feeling was the right one. I was convinced that,, if we left it to one association to provide telegraphic news, it would be detrimental to the interests of . the public mind; in fact, it would have been to do in this case what has been done in other cases in New Zealand, to attempt i to reduce the public opiniqn to one dead level.; Therefore, I determined that some change should be made in the existing state of things in this colony, and that the system which had been, adopted' in > England, and which had in part put an end to the abuses which existed there, i should be brought into operation here, as a first step in the direction it was intended to-take; and-1 may say that my colleagues agreed with me. I will state further, that, since-the new system has ' been introduced in England, and the papers have'been allowed to have special wires, there is fully twice as much news published as was the case formerly. Suppose there are. fifty such associations - in England: each of these associations gives what it considers to be the best news, and the consequence is that the public reap the benefit. Surely it is better that there should be a large number of persons who supply news to the public, and with . various views instruct the public mind, than .this "duty should be left in the hands of one or two gentlemen approved by the Government. In England there are no fewer than nineteen newspapers which have special wires, or, rather, which have the use of special wires' during the night. The English Government, being desirous of affording the papers every facility for obtaining information, determined to carry the new , system into effect, and, in fact, they consented to make such arrangements as have involved a loss of £20,000 a-year in the Telegraph Department. .They allow newspapers to lease special wires during the night for £500 a-year each; and not only are there wires which are used at night, but some papers have special'wires ' they can use during the day. Apart from the special wire system, the newspapers pay Is for every 75 words transmitted "during the day, and during the 'night they may transmit as many words as they think proper at the rate of Is per 100 words'. We determined to introduce .' a similar system here, as the best which has up to this time been devised, and I was extremely glad when> the first application' was made to us for a special wire. I may tell honorable gentlemen this : That it is impossible to introduce reforms of this kind in any country where there are vested interests, without difficulties being created in the department tbat is to carry out the reform. I will give an example. When it was proposed to introduce the penny - postage system itr Great Britain, it was found most to do so.. The permanent staff of the Post-office said it - was an impossiblity—that it could never be made to pay; and the only way in which the system could at last be introduced was by removing the permanent head of the department, and putting the author»6f the penny postage system, Mr . Bowland Hill, in his place. It appears to me that here also there exists a disbelief in the department that such a system as I propose can bo introduced in New Zealand. Very" strong arguments have been based by the Opposition upon the ', assertion of the permanent head of the Telegraph Department that it would cost £4,000 a-year to maintain a special wire ; and it was further said that great abuses would arise through its being used, as we proposed, at a charge to those using it of £2000 a-year. But, upon, further and very careful enquiry from the permanent head of the Telegraph Department by the Ministers, and taking every fair charge into estimation, it was found that the total cost, to the public would not exceed

JB2OOB a year ; that' a special wire could be granted to certain newspapers, during the night for that sum, certainly without any loss to the public. The Government therefore fixed a round sum of £2000 a-year as the charge. I believe, in doing so, we have placed upon the use of that wire about twice the sum that is charged for a special wire in England. I take it that the length of the wire in this colony will be about double that of any wire in England, and the consequence is that we are charging £1000 a year for what is given to newspapers in England for £500 a-year; and, while we do that, we still allow the evening papers to get news cheaper than in England, because,, instead of making them pay double the English rate, we take off 25 per cent, from that rate, and we allow those morning papers who choose to get news to get it at the same price as in England. It I has been said that this arrangement on our part has been an attempt to create a monopoly. How, I cannot understand. Every newspaper that pleases can avail itself equally of the advantages' we offer. It has also been said that we cannot give these facilities to papers al t the present time. I can only say that the permanent head of the department was' examined before some members of the Cabinet, and we understood that we had the power ,of immediately giving , the. use of a second special wire, supposing it to be applied for. It is also intended—and that intention will very shortly be carried out—to put up an additional, wire, which will enable us to give the same advantage to every paper that is likely to avail itself of that wire. In Great Britain, as I have said, the system has worked so well that, in addition to creating Press associations of various kinds, no less than nineteen newspapers now use special wires at night, and some of them have special wires in the day. In the latter case they pay for the construction of the wire, and, besides w.hat is charged for transmission, they pay a certain rate of interest for ] the deterioration of the wire. The consequence is that the expense is rery heavy, and it is very unlikely that, for some time to come, any newspaper in New Zealand will be able .to avail itself of such 'a system as that. Thenj such is the further effect of this system in Great Britain, that last year all "the Press associations^ together did not transmit as much' news as the few associations which existed in 1871, although the whole amount of news transmitted had greatly increased, for it has been found that the continued tendency is that each paper of any consequence endeavors to get its own special wire, with •a,view to promote<the sale of that particular paper. It is found, also, that the papers do not publish half the news they receive, because they take the trouble of making careful selections. I say that in the step we have taken we have consulted the interests, of the people of New Zealand ; at least, that.is my belief. The answers I have received and the' conversations that have been held with me on the subject appear, to my mind, to contain a series of arguments from those who are hostile to what we have done that are utterly untenable.- Some say it is an interference with the livelihood which certain persons are making as members of the Press. I say an argument of that kind, as an objection to an arrangement for the public instruction of the country at large, ought not to prevail. Then, on the other hand, when I contend that by this arrangement I shall secure for New Zealand at large, the very best intelligence that can be got to make selections of news from, I am told the persons who are doing the work now are quite as well able to make a good selection. But I reply that it is impossible for any one or two men to make as good a selection of news for the instruction of all New Zealand as can be made when the minds of many men are deroted to the work; and I say that the power of exercising so vast a control over the public mind ought not, by-a monopoly, to be left in the hands of any one or two persons. Then I say that . a great increase in the important news of the world outside will be given to*the people of the country. Several persons-have said in reply that the people of New Zealand already get more news than they want, and more than is good for them. ' To that I answer that it is of the very greatest advantage that we, in this remote part of the world, enabled by our isolation to form just and unimpassioned views on passing events, should be able to obtain the best possible information, and the clearest possible summary of the phantasmagoria of events occurring in Europe day by day. "We are but striring to obtain for the people of Few Zealand an education such as no other people have ever previously enjqyed. Since this matter has come up, I have been told by many persons that they pitied me for the calnmny and persecution I should have vto undergo in endeavoring to secure this great advan- . tage for this country. How far that calumny and/persecution can be carried we witnesses the other night, when it descended/ to. absolute personal abuse of myself of a very.strong kind. I hare simply (to say that I am ready to submit to such'persecution, because I feel that we, in making this attempt for the full liberty of printing, are doing, exactly what Milton did two centuries ago. Eor myself,..l would rather undergo all the abuse, and all the calumny, and all the persecution that could be heaped upon me, and suffer all that Milton suffered, than lend myself to the maintenance of what I believe to be a monopoly and a wrong-in this country, and opposed to the interest of,the people. I am satisfied - that when the question is really understood it-will be acknowledged that we have given far greater advantages to the .evening papers here than they get in England, as they can transmit 100 words for Is here, whereas they can only transmit 75 words in England for that sum. "It will also be acknowledged that we are' only acting for the good of the public, when it is known that we give to all'the morning papers the same facilities that they get in England; and, further, we shall allow every paper, or any number of papers who choose to associate for the purpose, to get the use of a special wire. Our' objects are to obtain for New Zealand the same dissemination of news that the people of Great Britain enjoy : to prevent the publication of news being monopolised, by one firm, and to provide that there shall not be a sole instructor for all this colony, stereotyping the public mind in one direction, keeping the people in ignorance of all those subjects they do not choose to communicate to them, often grossly misrepresenting the sayings and actions of public men and of public bodies. I say that we deserve the support of this House and of the country in carrying out such a principle as that. I beg to move the adjournment of the House. j