SECRET CONFERENCES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10263, 15 June 1911, Page 5

SECRET CONFERENCES.

[To The Editor.\

„ Sir,—Why is it, -as you state in I your issue of yesterday morning, that i secret deliberations predominate in I connection with certain organisations ? Is it not 'because the organisations you mention do not trust the press .fully P Airy society or organisation which seeks the betterment of mankind should court the fullest publicity. Let me mention here, and lain by no means alone in my opinion, that your paper a* independent, impartial and fair, and if the Press generally was as fair there would be no need of secret deliberations. You mention labour. : What sympathy doe* labour, unions and labour aspirations receive from the Press Very scanty. I have read dozens of articles about "The o^leub^r/',e*c.,., 6iid it is not 'to be wondered at if labour does not trust the Press in its conferences. Then you mention the N.Z. Alliance. Well, while the Press in the cities at i any rate is largely controlled and inifluenced by the liquor trade, there is 1 some reason-to ibe suspicious and l careful. Jiist previous to last local f option poll at Tnvercargill a liquor J case was (before the courts, in which ' it was shown that eight gallons of whisky went into a certain boardinghouse* during one month. How did the Press deal with it? One paper reported "Eighteen gallons of whisky was consumed in Mrs Sly-grog's boarding-house in Livercargill during one month." Another made, it "eighty' bottles of whisky," while a ■third stated that "eight hundred bottles of whisky was consumed in Mrs Sly-grog's boarding-house in- Invercargill during one month," the lying statements being made, of course, to discredit No-license in other electorates, and in Australia. Recently a prominent Alliance official resigned on account of pressure of private business, and a paper hostile to Nolicense renoi-ited the. incident under the following headings:— "Resdgn- ! Ed," "Pressure of Business, -'Ha! I BaJ Ha!" When the Press of our I Dominion will he fair, truthful, and ! impartial there will be no need 'of ! secret conferences.— I am, et«-t | "OBSERVER."