REPLY TO MR. HOWARD

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 8, 9 September 1927, Page 4

REPLY TO MR. HOWARD

INTERVIEW WITH MR. HARRIS,.

Mr. A, R. Harris, general manager of the New Zealand Broadcasting Company, when in Wellington last week, said that the statements made by Mr, Boward in the House were quite ins correct and apt to leave a wrong im-~ pression. In view of the partisan natare of the repeated, statements being made by the Labour members, it was necessary to the outside public to give denials and the facts. Mr. Howard sought te convey the impression that the company had been wrong in denying the statement made originally by the Hon. 1), Buddo in relation to fees and copyright when wireless sets were installed in country halls. . "Our reply to that,’? Mr. Harris stated, ‘"‘was that the company was not concerned with the copyright issue once our prggrammes are put on the air, nor with the amount of the fees imposed for sets installed in such circumstances, Mr. Howard is quite beside the point in the statement he now makes. The company has had nothing whatever to do with the regulations just issued by the Post and ‘Telegrapli Department. "Mr. Howard makes a big point ‘of comparing the broadcasting service with the Post and Telegraph Department’s services. He states that if the Post and Telegraph Department does not pay, then the Consolidated Fund bears the loss, Broadcasting 19 on @ very different basis, because of the fundamental difference that if the broadcasting service is run at a loss, the loss is borne by the Broadcasting Company, and not by the listeners or the country. Mr. Howard’s statement that the company has power to levy what are really rates and taxes upon the users of the service is absolutely -incorrect.. The conipany has no such power. "Tn connection with Mr. Howard’s advocacy of an Advisory Board, it was interesting to recall, said Mr. Harris, the circumstances under which the Advisory Board was first constituted. This came into existence before the Broadcasting Company was incorporated, and at the time when a former syndicate was negotiating with the. Government for. a 10 years’ tenure, which the Government did not see its way to grant. In connection with those negotiations an Advisory Board was formed, consisting of the Post-master-General, the Secretary of the Post and Telegraph Department, the Chief Telegraph Engineer, a representative of the Broadcasting Syndicate, and a representative of listeners. Lis- teners at that time were only one-tenth of their present number, and in the referendum that was held only about one-third voted for the representative chesen, who, on present conditions, represented one-thirtieth of the number of listeners. "Mr. Howard also suggests," comtinued Mr. Harris, ‘"‘that the listeners are not getting that to which they are entitled. Im what respect is that hap- | pening? ‘The Broadcasting Company is utilising to the full the entertaining resovices of the country, and will progressively continue to do so as Cife cumstances improve."