Banned

Salient has been banned from the streets of Wellington. Despite persistent applications, its request for a box from which to sell papers has been denied by the City Council.

Last year Salient applied to the Town Clerk for permission to be sold on the streets. This application was refused by the Town Clerk, Mr McCutcheon, on the grounds that the paper was not a "daily". When Salient argued that many weeklies, e.g. the Sunday Times and News, were sold from boxes, it was told that this was allowed because their publishers also published dailies — as if that were a reason.

No better reasons were forthcoming, and the matter was dropped because of the instransigence and absence of logic of the Town Clerk's department. The editors applied again early this year. The Town Clerk replied that he had turned Salient down last year, and that he could see little point in referring the matter to the committee again.

Not satisfied the Editors sent another letter to Mr McCutcheon pointing out that at present a large number of newspapers are sold or distributed on the city streets, including the Evening Post, Socialist Action, capping magazines and the various Jesus Freak publications. In view of this there seemed no reason for Salient to be denied a permit. The editors also requested that they be able to discuss the point with the Council's By-laws Committee before it made its decision. In their letter they stated that one of the main reasons for an application to sell Salient on the streets is their desire to bring the University closer to the community. In their opinion it was desirable for citizens to have access to the University's only newspaper.

Their request for a chance to present their case for city distribution was ignored The City Council met on May 16th and confirmed its decision of the previous year, and the Town Clerk's decision in March not to allow Salient to be sold through honesty boxes or otherwise.

No reasons have been given since the spurious claim that only papers from 'daily' publishers may be sold on the streets. The council asked for and got some copies of Salient to inspect. But they have not publicly decried its content, nor have they granted a hearing to its editors or publishers.

They have acted unilaterally and suppressed the voice of a significant part of the community in a situation where they could have legitimately 'built a bridge' within the community. Unless they reconsider their highhanded decision, or at least give some real reasons for it, they deserve to lose the confidence of the people they "represent".