PROSTITUTION OF THE PRESS.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2610, 29 June 1871, Page 2

PROSTITUTION OF THE PRESS.

To the Editor. Sir, — As the editor of the Otago Daily Times would not insert the following letter, I must apply to you as the only other organ in Dunedin to do so : *• There is a wily little man in Wellington who is well known to all reporters and the Otago members of the House of Representatives here, as “ our own correspondent ” of the Otaqo Daily Times, and other Otago journals, and who is equally well-known to the late House of Representatives as having a tremendous down (excuse the Colonial parlance, it is more forcible than Anglice when given in the Colonial patois), on our Premier, the Hon. William Pox, inasmuch as the said Honorable Pxemier tripped “ our own ” up in something akin to lying, when “ our own ” was Clerk to the Private Bill Office and a cadet in the volunteer service a sinecure and an office of honour) and in consequence “our own” lost his billet. Of course “ our own ” cannot have any great love for the Hon. Mr. Fox, hsnee these inuendos and despicable street rumours regarding the leader of the present administration, to wit : ‘ The position ‘of the ministry just now is sufficiently ‘ precarious to render a cautions far-seeing ‘ man like Mr. Fitzberhert very careful as to ‘ identifying himself with them, and it is ‘ well-known that he has a very strong per- ‘ sonal objection to the Premier, Mr. Fox, ‘ As for Mr. Fox, he is here, but doing 1 ttlc ‘or nothing, while Mr. Gisborne is almost ‘ worked to death. Humours are not want- ‘ itig that his colleagues are getting tired of ‘ a purely ornamental premier, and that he ‘ himself is likewise wearying of office. 1 ‘ should not be surprised at any moment to ‘ hear of his retirement from polit cal life to ‘ the snug haven of some permanent appoint‘ment,” vide Otago Daily Times' ‘ own correspondent’s ’ letter, 2Lt June last. The Otago Daily Times, of course, cannot know of the condemnation of its ‘ own correspondent by the Premier, otherwise it would not admit these articles without Editorial emendation. The truth is Mr Fox is, and always has been since the accession of the present administration to office, the loadstone, around which the various antagonistic elements of which the present Government is composed, centre, and without Mr Fox, the atoms forming the present Government would repel each other. .Socially, politically, and morally, Mr Fox is the embodiment of the present administration here. Perhaps some of your reader * may inform the public whether the editor of the Otago Daily Times ever corrects the articles of his reporters or own correspondents, for we here, cannot believe the Wellington’s own correspondent.

Yours, &c., Keporxjjb. Wellington, 25th June, 1871.