"Dom" Needs Improvement

Commenting on the takeover bid a well-known journalist said the Dominion clearly needed improvement. This was not the fault of the staff but lack of staff said it was Impossible to give full coverage of community activity with only about a dozen reporters covering the city area.

It needed apparatus for receiving wire photographs and an adequate reference library. He felt the paper could be improved by spending more money on it.

Overseas takeovers should be viewed cautiously, he thought. It was difficult to judge the true motive of the Thomson organisation in its takeover bid. Was it to expand its empire or an attempt to improve journalism in New Zealand?

There was no guarantee, he said, that profits would continue to be reinvested in New Zealand. When profits of overseas companies were taken back overseas the Reserve Bank had to be notified. It never took action to stop the profits from leaving the country.

At present one third of all New Zealand industry and profits were owned by overseas interests, he said. Last financial year £77 million of export earnings had been taken up by "invisibles." This included transportation and remittance of profits overseas.

Even if profits were not remitted overseas, they could be used to gain control in another New Zealand industry.