OURSELVES AS OTHERS SEE US.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2408, 20 December 1870, Page 3

OURSELVES AS OTHERS SEE US.

(From the Lyttelton Times, Fee. 15.) Dunedin has been the scene of strong political excitement during the past week. A visit from the Colonial Treasurer has called forth a violent ebullition of public feeling. Parties seem to be strongly and equally divided in their estimate of Mr Vogel’s conduct and capabilities. But the opposition have an advantage in the support of the leading journal. Curiously enough, the principal commercial town of the Colony boasts only one morning journal, and that is a rabid party organ. Among all the journals in New Zealand, the Daily Times ranks facile jirinceps in that respect. Whether its antipathy to Mr Vogel has anything to do with the fact that he stands in the tender relation of the parent to the Times , and that the present Editor is conscious of the painful contrast between the dim obscurity of the present and thelisdit of other days is doubtful ; but it is quite certain that the Dolly Times hates Mr Vogel very cordially, and never loses an opportunity of misrepresenting or abusing him. It is not wonderful, therefore, that having a monopoly in purveying political opinions, the Dunedin public were sufficiently misled to give Mr Vogel some- ( what scant courtesy when he first proceeded to address them. AVe have no hesitation in saying that the proceedings at the public meeting held in the Dunedin Theatre on the Bth hist., as reported in the Daily Times, avere of a character to reflect disgrace upon any intelligent community. An intemperate eccentric person of the name Grant, who has figured in the local political history of Dunedin as a prominent firebrand for many years past, appears to have been put up to to annoy Mr Vogel, This worthy seems to have found asulllcient number of sympathisers to have enabled Jiim effectually to disturb the business of the meeting, and prevent the Treasurer from explaining the policy and purpose of the Government. That a few violent, ignorant persons should be able thoroughly to disturb a large public meeting is not very creditable to the good sense or manners of any community, but the leading journal belonging to the same community should encourage this sort of thing by accepting the result as a political victory, ; s indeed lamentable, 'the article which appeared in the Daily Times of the following day, in which the writer gloats over the fact that Mr Vogel was “remorselessly hooted down and jeered at” by an uproarious mob, is one to make every true friend of the public press blush for bhi profession. That a very considerable section of the Dunedin public thought the same, is evident from the fact that Mr Vogel soon afterwards received a requisition, signed by a large proportion of the townspeople, asking him to hold another meeting for the purpose of explaining the conduct of the Government. At these meetings Air Vogcl gave an explanation of certain charges brought against the Government by the editor of the Daily Times, in his capacity of secretary of what is known as the Press Telegraph Association. The charge made by Air Barton amounted to nothing less than that the Government had purloined a telegram belonging to the Association, and given it to a Wellington ministerial paper. We are glad to observe that the source from which the telegram was obtained has been discovered, and that the loose and intemperate charges put forward by Mr Barton had no greater foundation than his own baseless suspicions. From our previous acquaintance with this gentleman as secretary of the Association, we wore quite prepared to And him wrong in this particular instance. In one very important respect the secretary of the Press Telegraph Association has broken the distinct understanding which existed between the members. A principal stipulation in this understanding was—as a matter of course—the careful elimination of all political coloring from the'telegrams sent to members of the Association. So far from this having been done, Mr Barton has repeatedly used the Association as a medium for the dissemination of strong political opinions identical with those promulgated in the columns of the Otcajo Dally Tunes. ■*