Untitled

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2225, 13 September 1889, Page 2

The groat injustice that is done to New Zealand, or which IS'ew Zealand does to herself, by not making her doings better known beyond her own borders has often been commented upon. The cable news sent Home appears to be only what filters through the medium of Australian correspondents or news agencies, and its derogatory and unreliable nature has long been a grievance to friends of the Colony resident at Home. From time to time the garbled accounts which have appeared m certain > Australian papers of actual events that have occurred m New Zealand, or of the position of the country, or the actions ot political parties have excited extremely adverse comment, Not long ago Kir Robert Stout fell foul of one of these prejudiced correspondents, and expressed his opinion very plainly ; and it appears that the articles on the WardChristie case m the Melbourne "Argus," which Mr Hislop and his friends have cited with so much satisfaction, have been based on the imperfect if not erroneous statement of the case which that journal's New Zealand correspondent forwarded. Indeed, most of the accounts of the case sent to Australia have either altogether suppressed or only made faint allusion to the important point of the interference with Judgt Ward being by a Minister whose firm were solicitors for the defuudant m the case, while the comparatively minor point of the Judge's well secured indebtedness to the nominally prosecuting company was made much of, These are only instances. Jt surely must be evident to the Australian newspapers that whatever benefit they may gain from the publication of New Zealand news must be more than lost when that news is so colored by partisan prejudice that the facts are distorted beyond recognition. The harm done to the colony by these false prophets has often been deplored, and we trust, now that influential journals m Australia and England are takiug up the matter that steps will be taken to give outsiders a fair and unprejudiced record of our doings.