The Australasian Press Bureau by A. W. ANDERSON

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 3, 1914

The Australasian Press Bureau

By A. W. ANDERSON

THREE years ago the General Conference Committee established a press bureau for the purpose of publishing the doings of this denomination to the world through the secular press. So successful were the efforts of the press bureau in securing reports of the meetings of the General Conference in newspapers throughout the States, that it was apparent to some of the delegates to the General Conference that we should be overlooking a splendid opportunity for promulgating this message if we did not make use of the public press.

At the first opportunity the matter was considered by our union conference committee, and the organization of a press bureau was committed into my hands. Owing to my camp meeting work during the summer, nothing was done toward organizing this branch of the work until March last, when we began correspondence with our conference officers and church leaders.

After considerable correspondence with the churches, a number of persons were appointed to look after this work, and already something has been accomplished in giving publicity to the denomination and its operations. In the Melbourne papers especially, considerable space has been utilized, and our scrapbook also contains many columns of news items which have appeared in the newspapers of the other states, as well as those of the Dominion of New Zealand. At the present writing we have received a response from forty-six churches and companies throughout the union conference, and they have appointed, in all, sixty-four persons as correspondents.

In 1911 our special press correspondent, Brother John Bell, began work with the secular newspapers circulating in Australia. In a short time articles from his pen were being published in eighty newspapers a month, and these figures continued to increase until now articles on present-day issues are appearing in from one hundred to one hundred and twenty papers a month. Recently Brother Bell began to encourage our ministers to endeavor to secure the publication

of their sermons in the local newspapers where they are conducting missions, and we are pleased to report that several of our laborers have been successful in securing space, in some cases amounting to considerably over a column in an issue.

We believe that the time has fully come when this message should be heralded to the remotest parts of the earth. In these days newspapers reach the smallest hamlets, the most isolated sheep stations and farms, and even the lonely boundary riders on the outskirts of civilization. Our work should occasionally find a prominent place in these papers; and as reports from our missions, both home and foreign, appear in the columns of the secular press, many persons may become interested in this denomination, with its world-wide message, which is already being preached in over seventy countries.

We appeal to our brethren throughout the field to cooperate with us in organizing this department of the work, thus enabling this message to receive that publicity which its magnitude calls for.

A. W. ANDERSON, Secretary.