"New Zealand Herald"

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 7, 28 August 1931, Page 11

"New Zealand Herald"

OMMON justice demands the admission that the company has bridged the great pioneering period of radio. development in this country. The position existing at the expiry of its present contract differs profoundly from that which it faced at the outset. The future then was uncertain, the possibilities of this new social amenity could not be definitely forecasted. All doubt has diappeared. The public demand for 4 broadcasting service is permanently established, the readiness of the public to support. one by paying license fees | has been put beyond question. It remains to be decided by. what agency the demand is to be met in future. The present company proposes the ' formation ofa new organisation in which its management shall hold one-half-of the ordinary shares, the balance being subseribed by license-holders; with the control equally: divided between the two. That is the core of the scheme... The plan the company has produced offers a 2ood basis for discussion, in that it is

practical and. constructive. Whatever the outcome, the appearance of such an alternative should help to dispose of any possibility that the Government should take over the stations, operate them and remain responsible for their output. A New Zealand broadcasting service, owned, organised, and operated in New Zealand, is essential. That ean be achieved without it being 2 State enterprise, operated by the State, and every care should be taken to see that it does not become one.