The Evening Post. SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 1865.

Evening Post, Issue 111, 17 June 1865, Page 2

The Evening Post. SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 1865.

There is something about our contemporary, the Independent, which we cannot fail to admire, but we never can endorse. We are always much struck by the cool impudence— the barefaced effrontery— which the writer in its columns displays when he considers our modest endeavours worthy of his condescending notice, and, although we confess we are insensible to any feeling oi: gratitude for the patronage thus bestowed, we are willing to believe that it ia all intended for our benefit. The Independent of this day's publication has a paragraph under the head of " Unacknowledged Quotations," in which we are accused of filching from ita columns Mr. Vox's address to the Rangitikei electors without acknowledgment, and the talented editor of our contemporary, in pity, no doubt, lest

harsher terms might hurt our very sensitive feelings, kindly attributes our having done to to " that ignorance which so often accompanies youth and inexperience." In the first place, we think if. was as well that the Independent: should have nceused urt of hnving copied something which was not written by the editor of that journal, for, indeed, although we have been in business some months in Wellington, we have not observed in its columns nny strictly original matter wl'ich we would select. F>r ajmrnnl that actually professes ability, we vwrilv believe I lint the Independent stands unrivalled in its own us i i mation— for a paper whose only rerommeudatinn is a lack of abi.ity, a want of courtesy, and a love of Billingsgate—it is now, since the demise of thu Dunedin Saturday Review, without a colleague in N«-w Z -.ilaod. We plead guilty to the charge of inexperience in journalism of this character. We have been now for upwards of a score years connected with the press in different parts of the world, and we honestly confess that never before did we find a place in which the ideas of a fan f aron, clothed in the language of the cattle drover, were even tolerated. Perhaps it may be an infliction which cannot be avoided, but, when twitted with "youth and incxpeiience," we may be excused whom we give vur judgment, knowing full well that, in that view we have the support of a discerning public. We know the old saw that '¦ 'A hat is bred in the bone," &c., and we are only sorry ihttt we cannot attribute our contemporary's conduct to inexperience, because be appears to be quite aufait in his particular line. Now, with regard to Mr. Fox'a address, the subject of the accusation — we took it without acknowledgment, and we would do the same thing a^ain. That address wai written for the information of the Rangitikel electors, and we only helped to carry out Mr. Fox's intentions when we gave it additional publicity through the medium of our columns. Had it been the exclusive property of the Independent, we would have acknowledged it as a matter of course, but it was public property, and, when published, we had as much right to It »¦< any person else. And now that we have shown our contemporary Iliac we object to being ridden over rough-shod, perhaps he will be more careful how he makes us the.' subject of his witless shafts for the future, lest he may find t,hat, however youthful and inexperienced we may be in the lower walks of our profession, wo can repel an unjust attack, and bring confusion on the head of its author.