Any Old Newspapers?

The following statement was issued by the Victoria University Students' Association earlier in the week:

The Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association publishers of the newspaper Salient and the magazine Cappicade are considering making an offer for the ordinary capital of the Wellington Publishing Company Limited.

The Association is interested in obtaining a 90% holding in the company in order to gain control of the daily newspaper The Dominion. It considers that an offer of 4/71/2d. per share would be a true estimate of the paper's worth.

The Association would be prepared to guarantee to the readers of the newspaper that the editorial policy would certainly not be maintained. There are, however, no plans for absorbing the "Dominion" into the Association's own paper "Salient."

We would give an assurance that no interest in the Wellington Publishing Company would be sold to overseas or Auckland interests without the previous consent of the Prime Minister.

The Association would give a collateral agreement to the effect that neither socialist nor neo-communistic ideologies would be propagated in the Dominion, though they may be discussed.

The Dominion has a long and distinguished history of loyalty and service. In the hands of a nonpolitical organization such as the Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association this tradition could be the means of continuing and improving the high standard of journalism already shown by the paper.