The Evening Star SATURDAY, MAY 20, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2576, 20 May 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, MAY 20, 1871.

The Dally Titties is very angry this morning, and tries to make the public believe" the General Government lias been guilty of dereliction of duty through inserting Land Transfer notices in the Evening Star instead of in its columns. We do not suppose there is any one in the City, excepting, perhaps, his Worship the Mayor, who would not be able to give a very satisfactory reason for it. Notwithstanding the assumption of our morning contemporary, the fact that the Evening Star circulates where the Daily Times is never seen, and is to be found in the hands of all—at any rate, in Dunedin and the suburbs, who patronise that feeble production, —is sufficient justification for advertising in our columns. One thing must be especially gratifying to the public, the Times has at length grown so humble as to class its own progenitor and offspring, the Of ay a Witness, and the Echo together. We scarcely wonder at it, for had not those journals been thus prominently placed before the public in the leading column of the Times, their existence would hardly have been remembered; and were they dead to-morrow, no gap would be felt in the current literature of the time. The editor of the Daily Times need be under no fear of the Land Transfer notices not being made sufficiently public because of not being inserted in the journal he directs. We believe that we are quite correct in Saying that that journal, like ourselves, was asked to state the terms on which they should be inserted, and in the usual course of business, the offer of the Evening Star was accepted, as affording the widest publicity on the best terms. We do not know whether or not our tender was the lowest; but if not, taking into consideration the very much larger circulation of the Evening Star in Dunedin, its suburbs, the outlying rural districts, and Port Chalmers, amongst the persons affected, and considering also that the local country press, in their respective districts where the Daily Times is seldom seen, share in the advertisements, the conclusion is irresistible that the Land Transfer Office has adopted means to give the widest information at the least expense. Covertly, our contemporary insinuates that advertisements are hidden in the Provincial Gazette. This, like many of our contemporary’s timid approximations to falsehood, is altogether untrue. Although it might be advantageous to insert advertisements in the Provincial GazetM, we believe we state what is strictly true when we say that not one has appeared in that publication, but that all the advertisements have first been inserted in the Colonial organ, the New Zealand Gazette, although the Act would justify their being published in the Provincial Government Gazette. We have thus stated, as far as the Evening Star is concerned, _ the true character of our relationship to the present Government. Politically, we have supported them because the measures they have propounded have been for the benefit of the Colony and the good of the Province; and when they cease to be beneficial we shall be as ready to oppose them. We have never hesitated to denounce what we conceive to be faulty in their proposals; nor will we submit to be so trammelled by party politics as to lose our usefulness as an advocate for the public good. Had our contemporary acted on the same independent principles, instead of crawling to a faction, ho would not have had to take the humiliating position he occupies this morning of trying to enlist public sympathy in his favor, because, forsooth, in a purely business transaction, he has 'been outbid by a competitor. The article inserted this morning partakes of the same spirit that has characterised the whole of the proceedings of that journal with regard

to the Government. So fur as we know, everything in thevinatter complained of has been fairly and honorably conducted. We have neither sought nor obtained favor ; and if our contemporary has ceased to be the leading journal of Dunedin, he must blame himself, in that he has sacrificed principle to an endeavor to crush a Ministry, one of the members of which was obnoxious to him. The insinuations contained in the article this morning are characterised by the same hypocritical cant with which he has so long attempted to blind the public. Pretending to be actuated by disinterested motives, the cloven foot peeps out; and should a copy ot the paper published this morning fall into hands where the truth is not known, they might perhaps be led to suppose that the advertisements are inserted in some obscure publication, as our contemporary has not the straightforwardness to state they appear in the Emaitaj Star. It will thus be seen that the same sneaking tactics are developed in its puny effort to damage this Journal as in its attacks upon the Government. But we can assure our contemporary he may spare himself the trouble. So long as the Evenuaj Star continues to advocate measures which arc for the public good, so long will it receive public support ; and when it sacrifices principle to faction, it will, like our morning contemporary, sink into deserved contempt.