VINDICATION OF THE PRESS.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 237, 25 October 1878, Page 3

VINDICATION OF THE PRESS.

A certain Mr Tewsley, of the Dunedin Harbor Board, having denounced the Press in no measured terms, is thus scathingly annihilated by the Wellington Evening Chronicle: —" It is a fashion on the part of some small-witted, ignorant, egotistical, and conceited men to sneer at and revile the public Press and public writers. A personage called Tewsley, who is acting-chairman of the Dunedin Harbor Board, has been pleased to say at a recent meeting of that august .body, " that a newspaper editor was the very essence of blackguardism ; and that he (Tewsley) would not be content to be a newspaper editor for £5000 a year, because the position required a man who could .make falsehood appear truth, or truth falsehood.'' It seems this diatribe against the Press generally, was called forth by some scathing newspaper comments concerning a job Avhich the Otago Harbor Board is trying to get worked just now in the lobbies of the House, and which Mr J. L. Gillies, the Secretary of the Board, has been sent to Wellington to endeavor to have put through. Apparently the working through of the scheme is not proceeding smoothly, therefore Tewsley jumps up in his place, and reviles the Press. If New Zealand journalists and their writings are the essence of blackguardism, it is remarkable what influence both possess with the great :nass of the people. The Press could not command the confidence, and receive the support of the people unless it was true, honest, and just,— the denouncer of Avrongs, Ihe exposer of abases, the protector of the weak, and the assailant of the strong-handed oppressor. That, with very few exceptions, journals in New Zealand do all this is generally acknowledged. And the colonists of New Zealand have not been slow to acknowledge the able, zealous, and loyal service of their journalists. Journalists have been placed in the New Zealand Parliament. They have even achieved the Premiership and held high office in more than one Ministry. Journalists in New Zealand have been appointed to the highest permanent offices in the gift of the State. Alfred Domett was at one time a newspaper editor ; so was William Fox, in his palmiest days ; so was J. C. Richmond ; so was Julius Vogel ; so was Williamson ; so was Dr Evans ; and the list could easily be multiplied. All these men have achieved high office. Alfred Domett, William Fox, and Julius Vogel, have atone time and another been Premier.-* of the Ministry. J. C. Richmond was Native Minister ; John Williamson was four times elected Superintendent of Auckland. In the present Ministry, we might almost say that at one time or other, Mr Stout, the Attorney-General, and Colonel Whitmore, have been journalists; while the Colonial Treasurer, Mr Ballance, was for years a newspaper editor. Surely, oh, most wise and virtuous Tewsley, men who have achieved such honors as these through the suffrages of the people, must have other and better stuff in them than " the essence of blackguardism and the ability to make truth appear falsehood." Such qualifications, indeed, might possibly get a man into the position of acting-chairman of a Harbor Board, but they would not enable him to aspire to an editorship, either at £5000 a year or even less money.- And Tewsley nejcl not fear that anybody will offer him an editorship at £5000 a year. To judge by his foul-mouthed and ruffianly language, while speaking of the Press, the only literary employment for which Tewsley is qualified, would be to compile a new vocabulary of Billingsgate. Go to, oh Tewsley, and mend your manners. Some of the Pressmen of New Zealand, whom you vilify, are so far above you, that you are not worthy to black their boots."