5

1.—15.

W. H. ATAOK.

15. They would not come here direct in any case?—Of course, that is in the womb of the future. There are a great many changes coming, and one does not quite know. Some day or other, Tit> doubt, we shall get our own service from England. 16. Mr. Newman.] I suppose that if this Bill became law the alteration of the time would be more injurious to the morning papers than to the evening ones?—lt would affect them both—the morning papers, 1 think, the more. 17. As representing the Press Association you are opposed to this Bill? —Unless you can persuade the Australian Government to pass a similar measure. 18. Hon. Mr. BuddoJ\ Your evidence in favour of standing by the present system of mean time is entirely a matter of the receipt of news from Australia?— Yes. I wish to make it quite clear to the Committee that this measure would not cut messages out of publication; they would appear in the next issue. It would mean a half-day's delay. 19. What news would be cut out of the morning papers by the adoption of this proposal? — The messages that now arrive on what we call the midnight service—that is, the service that has had to be provided specially to enable us to get the latest news. 20. Therefore it would not affect urgent news?— Well, of course, one cannot say what may come in these messages. Very often, especially in war-time, it is urgent news. Supposing the liner War were going on now, and we were cut out of an hour's cables, it might make a very serious difference. Interesting and important news would very often be delayed twelve hours in publication. 21. You are speaking entirely from a Press point of view?— Yes. 22. Does not the Press Association receive its principal news by cable, irrespective of the special night service?—We receive our news mainly in two batches, or three batches—that is to say, in the morning for the evening papers, then in the later afternoon and in the evening for the morning papers. But there are stray cables continually-cropping up at various times during the day. 23. Would the advancing of the time one hour affect our cables from London to any great extent with regard to morning publication? —At this particular moment it would not affect them so much as it would have done a little while ago, when a great quantity of messages were arriving on the midnight cable service. Those messages do not get to Wakapuaka till about 1 a.m. They vary in number. Just at present there are not a great number, but before long there may be a great number, coming at that time in the morning. Many of those messages probably would not reach the morning papers in time for publication. It would mean 2 o'clock before messages received at 1 o'clock could be distributed all over New Zealand. If } T ou add another hour it would be 3 o'clock, and this would be simply fatal. 24. Have you seen the report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Daylight Having Bill?—I have not actually seen the text of it, but I have read something about it. 25. In section 4, dealing with the Press, the report says that evidence had been submitted showing the reception of the Bill by the Press, of which by far the larger proportion was. favourable? —Yes. Well, the}' are not faced with these difficulties as to time that confront us. England is in the happy position of being behind in time, which is all right from a newspaper point of view. For instance, when a test cricket-match is being played in Australia the evening papers in London can publish the whole of that day's play on the same daj\ They are 11J hours behind, so that when a cricket-match starts in Australia at 12 o'clock, it is really midnight of that morning. But out here we are llj hours ahead. That means llf hours behind, really, instead of ahead. 26. So that the proposal contained in this Bill would, for six months of the year, cause at least twelve hours' delay in the publication of massages, from Australia principally?— Some portions of it—not the whole of the news. To put it very briefly, I would say that the Bill would greatly hamper the papers. 27. Mr. Pooled] Is there much rivalry between the morning and evening papers so far as getting fresh news is concerned? —Of course, they are naturally all very keen, and no one likes to see the other fellow getting something he might have had. 28. Is it a fact that the evening papers would hail this measure with delight because it would place within their reach some of the cable messages that would otherwise be first published in the morning papers.?—l do not think so. As far as I have consulted newspaper-proprietors, they all feel that they would be hurt by it. It would cut messages out of evening papers just as much as it would out of morning papers, and throw them forward on to the next set of papers. 29. At what time are the last messages received for afternoon publication?—We sometimes get them at Wakapuaka at as late as 2 and 2.30 p.m. After that it is almost impossible to catch the evening papers, unless it is something very urgent and very short. 30. Then, there would lie an equal division of loss between the morning and evening papers? — I think it would affect the morning papers rather more than the evening ones. 31. At what time do the morning papers publish, as a rule?— Most of them are pretty early. nowadays. They nearly all have trains leaving at 4 o'clock to catch, and I believe they go to press at something like 3 o'clock, or even earlier. 32. Do you believe in natural light for the operations of industry in preference to artificial light?—Oh, yes! Ido not think there can be any two opinions about that. 33. You think there is a pretty unanimous opinion that that would be desirable?—l should think the people you could best put such a question as that to would be the managers of some of the gas or electric light companies. . 34. The Chairmsin.] Would it not mean that the evening papers would be publishing cables which the morning papers at present publish first?—To some extent, yes; and probably to some extent the morning papers would be publishing messages that ought to have appeared in the evening papers.