A Protest.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 2, Issue 326, 23 April 1881, Page 2

A Protest.

We are always glad to learn of the advancement of our neighboring provinces, commercially or otherwise, and hence our joy at learning that they have discovered payable and promising coal fields in Blenheim. There is, however, a drop of bitterness in the cup of joy, and it takes the form of the trashy and lengthy character of the telegram conveying this reliable information to us on Thursday afternoon. There is always a claim to leniency to a first offender, but in this respect the Press Association can offer nothing extenuatory, this bieng nofirstappearance. The rules for the guidance of the agents of the Association in the execution of their duties stipulate that “care should be taken that the character of the news sent is likely to be of interest to readers at a distance and “ facts, not opinions, are what is wanted therefore, why should we be harrassed by lengthy and consequently costly telegrams on matters which are of little interest outside the district in which they transpire Possibly, that versatile gentleman, MrCroumbie Brown, special correspondent of the Lyttelton limes is a good judge of the qualities of coal and an expert in the matter of the prospects of a coal-bearing district, and it is equally possible, though we fail to see where the experience therein was gained, that Mr Blair, Railway Engineer, possesses like qualifications in a similar direction, but that these gentlemen’s speeches are of such importance that they should be telegraphed at our expense, we decline to recognise. If these gentlemen desire puffing in the colonial press, our advertising columns, for one, are open to their patronage, and if they, or any others, are willing to pay the piper in this direction we will be prepared to pay the cost of telegraphing, otherwise we certainly protest. If the agent of the Association at Blenheim does not possess a sufficient knowledge regarding discriminating in the matter of what is news and what is purely trash, we would suggest the appointment of a person in his place possessing such qualifications.