SIXTY YEARS AGO

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 246, 12 July 1921, Page 6

SIXTY YEARS AGO

. ft WHEN NEWSPAPERS QUARRELLED A GREAT DENUNCIATION HOW MEMORIES ARE MADE SWEET

(By

F.E.B.)

Thera is sadness in growth. There is Badness, verily, in the advent of civilisation; for with the coming of the new there sounds the death-knell of the old. No matter, what the institution, be its k foundation ever so well laid, or its principles ever so well moulded, there comes the relentless disintegration of progress; and old customs, old joys, old traditions become but deep graven memories. So is it 'in Wellington. The city has risen, Phoenix-like, out of the ashes of what has been. The old names have become but catch-lines, as on a newspaper proof. The new has roared high its head over the old in a brazen palimpsest. .... But there are memories. In his recent hook, "Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town,” Professor Stophen Leacock refers to Mariposa, a little Canadian town, as "not a real town. . . . There are about, seventy or eighty of them all the ■way from Lake Superior to the sea, with the same sqpare streets, and the same maple trees, and the same churches and hotels, nnd everywhere the sunshine of the land of hope." Ho might have been referring to our Wellington, when the electric tram was scarcely a germ in the inventor’s brain, and when the destructor did not stand near Oriental Bay. Wellington, Auckland, Dunedin, in the ’sixties were the true realisation of the word "home.’ They were sincere. They had to be. for colonists were as a hand of brothers and know one another n.s onlv men can. Thor hnd their Bov. Dean Drones, such ns Professor Lceeock depicts, their .Toe. Smith, who served out the ale in big tankards: their Pupkins, from their little banks—bright young Van Diemenslnndere, mostly. with the tight coats and the supercilious manner of the older colony. Their Newspapers. And what is more to the point, they • had their newspapers. To the reader of to-day’s marvellous newspapers, in which the world is circled within the twentyfour hours that elapse between times of • publication, the news sheet is an insti- ■ tution that he rpads to be kept abreast of the times. . . . A Wellington daily in 1861, sixty years ago..was quite a different thing. Its duty lay in a different channel. It had to record the joys and Borrows of a compact community, in which its partisanship, in matters affecting the common weal was essential. It hnd to fight, and fight hard, for its principles’ in a day when the editorship of a newspaper required a horse-pistol under the editorial desk, and a cutlass on the wall of the sanctum. It was the solace of the lonely pioneer—for who is there who could help being lonely twelve thousand miles from home? When a stalwart ship, a frigate of the line, or a smart Government, corvette arrived from New South Wales, the newspapers vied with one another in spreading an extra in large type of all the latest Home news. As"l write, I have before me an extra, of Wednesday morning. August 28. 1861, ■ of the Wellington "Independent/’ announcing the arrival of "the ship Lord Wolseley, with European intelligence. . . Progress of the Civil War in America. . .” 'And to day the cables flash lesser things than that to an indifferent public before the hands of the clock move twenty-four hours. The Great Rebuke. Such are memories. When the Wellington "Independent”, published on the morning of September 10, of the same year, it must have stirred all its loyal readers. At that time things were in a bad way further north. British troops were stationed all through the Waikato, the King Maoris were restless, and last, bnt not least, a rival newspaper, "The --■ Wellington Advertiser,” had—from the viewpoint of the "Independent” publish- • ed a fearful untruth in stating that the Provincial Government had passed a Bill providing for the erection of a toll-gate at Kaiwarra. What a fearful state of affairs! That such an important topic as the. Kaiwarra toll-gate should have been presented in a misleading manner ■ by the "Advertiser.” The “Independent" is explicit in its denunciation. One can well imagine the editor, in his Old World frock coat and high cravat, his seals and snuff-box, steeling himself to hia task:

Our pen (he writes) would bo kept going pretty constantly were it our practice to expose the mis-statements of the "Advertiser.” Of late its shafts against the superintendent and General Assembly members have been too feebly sent to do them or their -> party the slightest harm. At a time when the superintendent and his colleagues wore striving to oust a Ministry who had done us all the injury It could, and replacing it by one desirous of promoting our welfare, the public have turned in disgust from the spirit of petty antagonism which our contemporary has displayed. The Toll-gate Question.

The heated words of outraged righteousness, are they not? To think, mark i you, that the "Advertiser" had said:— The principal members of the Provincial Government stin remaining at Auckland, nothing is done or attempted to be done, in tho interests of this province. A Bill authorising tho superintendent to ereet a ton-gate at Kaiwarra was passed by the Council, but so far we Y-ave nothing about it. .... Ono tollgate will not be sufficient for tho object intended, and though those who use the road do not object to contribute a toll towards keeping it in an efficient state of repair, they require its repairs to bo proper.}' attended to. From the proceeds of a single toll-gate this could not oe effected. Then comes the red-hot. blow of the "Independent”:— The "Advertiser” must be guilty either of gross ignorance or gross wickedness in penning such a statement as above. If it really does think that a Bill for tho erection of a toll-gate was passed last session if it really does not know that the Bill was never passed, but was with-

drawn— It should have known, it seems to me, for there was a Hansard record in those days, but no matter:--—then it displays such am ignorance of the localmatters of which it is always carping, as totally to unfit it for the direction of the public mind. When a journal displays such palpable ignorance about what takes place under its very nose, it is no wonder that it misleads its readers in matters of graver consequence. Those who put their trust in such a blind leader will be sure to fall into a ditch—they cannot help it. The Crowning Insult.

Then comes the crowning insult, tho easting of the gauntlet, the placing of tho chip of wood on tho shoulder. It concludes If, however, it was not ignorance that dictated the above statebut having exhausted all its white lies, it invents an out-and-out "thumper” (sic) from sheer wickedness, then there is no other course open for us felt to shame it into better behaviour—and, if such an exposure ua at present will not have the deaired effect, all we can say that it

must be past shame, and ire aban- j don the case as hopeless. Thore is the mighty indictment: The’ toll-gale at Kniwarra! What excite- ] ment there must have been iu Tinakori 1 Hoad and on the Quay that day. One I can imagine the editor of the "Adver- I tiser,” in sharp conversation with his j cronies, horsewhip in hand. The local i demagogues attract crowds at the corn- 1 ers . . . three daya afterwards a member ’ of the assembly strides in from the Wai- ' Tarawa, and demands a denial. : Just memories. Memories of occur-; renoes that will never come again. For with the passing of the years newspapers . have learned politeness—even over tho of toll-gates. I The partial electrification of the Melbourne suburban railways has proved a great financial success, the saving effected thereby amounting to .£191,000 per an- ( num. J