The Evening Star. FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 1870.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 95, 29 April 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star. FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 1870.

It is often proudly claimed that the press is the great teacher of the age. And the claim is a just one. Penetrating into the home and the counting house, hearkened to in the senate and by the fireside, teaching where the voice of the preacher is never heard, it is widely influential for good or evil. With such a mission and such pretensions, the character of the press should accord ; and to the honor of British journalism, it can be said that its esprit de cotps is characterised by high-souled chivalry and honor; and we have no hesitation in asserting that it is the duty of every member of the fourth estate to religiously defend the purity of the order, and to purge out the unclean thing. That such a courseis sometimes requisite is evident from a few incidents of journalism in Auckland. During the visit of his Excellency to the Thames a few months ago, our contemporary the Daily Southern Cross sent a special commissioner to report in full the vice-regal progress. A package containing a voluminous report from the Commissioner was addressed to the Daily Southern Cross and forwarded by steamer to Auckland. While the steamer was lying at the Queen-street Wharf, the editor: pf. a contemporary being on board, saw the package in the saloon, and coming up on deck directed his then shipping reporter to go below and take it. The reporter did as ordered, and gave it to this man, who put it in his pocket, and its contents appeared in extenso in next morning's issue of his journal. That package, of course, never reached its original destination. Subsequently the same shipping reporter deposed to the above facts on oath, before a magistrate; and his affidavit is" at present in the office of the Daily Southern Gross. .., m I

On the morning of the 24th tflnuary last, the following notice, which is sufficiently explicit appeared over the leader in the Neio Zealand^ Hetdld:—-{. " In conse^ienqe^of our Tauranga corres* pondent's letter} in-reference to the attack byToKooticm the Oiuuemiilu, Pa, &8., having been by some ineana .'obtained from our office previous to the"publication of the J\ rew Zealand Herald on Saturday morning—and which appeared in the. columns of the Morning Advertiser of that clay—all persons connected with that journal are cautioned agaibst coming to this Office after ordinary busipess hours under any pretext whatever.— Herald office, January 24,1870." On. the same date we find inserted in our own journal the following paragraph :— ' Journalism. —We must still express our indebtedness to the kindness of the proprietors of the Daily Southern, &o»and 2\ reiv Zealand Herald for the use of their exchauges. Our own files from the Southern provinces arrived in due course by the Phoobe, but on our calling to receive them we were informed that the shipping reporter of a contemporary had represented himself as authorised to receive them, and accordingly obtained our exchanges. We are quite prepared for honourable competition, but in this style of thing we are not adepts ; and we give distinct warning that if ever again our exchanges are interfered with, we shall promptly institute legal proceedings in a criminal prosecution. This warniug was insufficient; the offence has been several times repeated since; and yesterday the proprietors of this journal appealed to the Courts of law in a civil action. The case is fully reported in another column, and needs no comment. It must be patent to any one that the files of exchanges j are the food of journalism, its very I necessaries of life ; and as well might we appropriate a case of drapery or a chest of tea from a merchant's consignment, as steal a correspondent's despatch, or filch the files of a contemporary. . The Resident Magistrate expressed j his opinion of the case in giving sub- j stantial damages, but we think it will | be seen by all that, though the reporter of the Morning Advertiser has been justly amerced, the really guilty has nob yet been reached, nor the ends of justice fully attained. We honestly believe that Mr. Drake had not guilty intentions, and that had his wishes been consulted, the files would have reached their proper destination ; and from the character of this gentleman and the esteem in which he is held, it was and is a source of regret that he should have been necessarily involved in the prosecution. But when we find that in this city the stealing of correspondents' letters has been openly boasted of; the pilfering of news from a printing machine room gloried in, and filching files regarded as fair game, and to be repeated ; when we find journalism with brazen effrontery flaunting its infamy about the public streots, it is high time that the Press, whose ranks are those of gentlemen, should purge itself; that a stand should be made for the honor of the order, and that newspaper scoundrelism should be tarred and feathered.