The Evening Star. MONDAY, MAY 20, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4135, 29 May 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star. MONDAY, MAY 20, 1876.

The near approach of the Parliamentary

session, and the necessity for early attention'

being directed to the matter, must be our

apology f for referring’ to though itmore is, we take leave to think, not without interest to the public. We allude to the tariff for Press telegrams in its relation to evening journals. The inequalities and positive injustice of a tariff that-entails upon evening papers a charge of more than 25 per cent; over and above what is paid by. morning papers have been demonstrated in these columns and in the columns of many of our contemporaries so* completely that contradiction of the facts we and they have from time to time brought-forward in support of the position we have taken up is impossible. Naturally then bur readersmay inquire, “If your , position is as you say, unassailable, why does the department refuse to concede it ? ” We hope before we have done with the subject to show that the reason assigned by the department for refusing to, meet the demands of evening journals is an excuse—a begging of the question; but before doing so, and for the better understanding of the question,, we will sketch, as briefly as possible. the circumstances that have brought it to its present stage. After the tariff had been tested by a couple of years’ experience, it became evident to the proprietors of evening journals that, with perhaps two or three exceptions in large towns, where the prospect of profitable results might justify the outlay, anything beyond a minimum use of the wires, while the evening papers. were so heavily handicapped, meant in ordinary oases an expensive but ineffectual competi-. tion with the morning journals. In-1871, the proprietor of the ■ Evening Star addressed to the Commissioner of Telegraphs a memorial, which met with the approval and received the signature of the owners of nearly every evening journal in the Colony, setting forth the injustice of the tariff for Press messages, and asking for such concessions in favor of evening papers as the. department might see its way to granting without prejudice to the public service, dir Julios Vogel was then Commissioner, but lest any action he might take in the matter • shonld, by reason of his connection with the Press, be misinterpreted, tie relegated the memorial to his colleague, the Colonial Secretary,, for consideration. Or Pollen made short-work of it; and* with the politeness with which that hon. gentleman can dismiss troublesome matters, the memorialists were informed that, after “due consideration, the Commissioner could not see his way to granting their request. ’ ’ Nothing further was done till-last session, when the matter was taken up by the proprietors of the Auckland ‘ Star,’ who, thinking that the failure of the previous attempt bad been owing to tbe indehiiiteriess of the concessions asked for, approached} theJPublio Petitions Committee with a'memorial bristling with facts and figures, which must have exercised a strong influence with the House if there had been time to have examined them mid to have heard the - evidence Messrs Reed and Brett were prepared -to tender to the committee. But it unfcfftunately happened that the initiatory step was taken when the attention of the House would'on no account [ be diverted from the all important-subject 1 then under consideration—the abolition ofn Provinces—and when the memorial did reach the committee, that body was oh the point of drawing its labors for the session-to a close. - Thus it was that the matter again Mr A. J. Richmond called attention to at by asking, without notice, “ whether the Government would relax the rule with reference to Press telegrams, so as to permit the transmission during the day of five hundred .words ?” The reply ipade by Mr Reynolds, who was at that time at the head of the Telegraph Department, is thus recorded in ‘Hansard’;—

After a very careful investigation the Government Lad come to the decision: tb-allow 200%ords at Is per 100 words to he supplied-to the evening papers during the day. He might say that beyond that the Government were not prepared to grant any further concessions. Were further concessions granted it would he at a Considerable lest to the department, and duo at the risk of clogging the wires 'at several stations. This would cause dissatisfaction among those who ; were in the habit of paying the full rate of Is for ten words. The Press telegrams did not recoup the expenses of sending the messages. ;The charge of Is per 10ft words, When they cohsidered the cost of paper and.payment of messengers for delivering the telegrams, did not meet expenses. If any further concessions were to be granted it would involves large increase to the Staff of the department. A commission had been appointed In the United Kingdom to consider the some subject, and the report of a committee appointed by the Lords of the Treasury, doted 17th July, 1875, to investigate the causes of the increased cost of the telegraph sendee since its acquisition by the British Government, in. pointing out Some of the sources of* jpi s > remarked—he wbuldfquote their own words— The Press tariff ocarged in accordance with section 16 of the Telegraph Adt of 1868 is another fruitful source of loss. One shilling is charged for every 100 words transmuted during the night and the same sum for every 75 word* transmitted during the day, twopence only in addition being charged for the same matter forwarded-do'different addresses. The consequences of .such a system must be obvious to every inquirer. Even ‘at ordinary ’ times the ■ wires are always largely occupied by Press work, 2 nd at. extraordinary times they arc absolutely flooded With the most uuremunerative traffic, which not only fills the wires Uiiduly to the exclusion Of , better paying matter, but necessitates a much staff than would be necessary with a more reasonable system." He bod not the least doubt that if the House were also to appoint a committee, it Would be found that tbo Press teleijraph messages involved a loss to the department He did not think so much 6f the present loss to the department, but it would be impossible to grant any further concessions so a? to block Ujjtthe wires duringtheday. He thought the newspapers ought to be satisfied With the privileges they enjoyed. They had the opportunity of sending as many words as they pleased during the night, at the rate of Is per 100 words; and they , were allowed to send 200 words during the day at the same rate. '

We mention, in passing, that the italics in the above extracts are our own. At the evening sitting on the same day that Mr Richmond’s question was put, Sir George Grey, who exhibited the warmest interest in the question, took advantage of the opportunity that was afforded by the motion to go into Committee of Supply to provoke the Acting-Commissioner into further discussion, which he did by moving—“ That it is expedient to make some reduction on the telegraphic rates now charged to evening papers for the transmission of their messages during the day.” . Sir George stated the case of the evening papers very temperately indeed when he said, r

At present the evening papers in the different parts of the Colony were charged L2 7s 8d for each 1,000 words transmitted during the day, whereas the morning papers conld have the same munbor of words transmitted for 10s fed; The evening papers were allowed to receive only 200 words during the day at the same rates as the xtoi ning papers. The reason assigned for the difference between the two charges was the necessity for kcep ng the wires clear from being clogged during the doy; to which the answer given wns that -the regulations made in the Telegraph Department uanply provided against clogging the wires, by fixing the length of messages that could bo sent at any one-time, that this precaution was regarded by evening papers ns a mere excuse, because the Department would take messages of any length froth the evening papers if they paid for them, and that the messages they now asked tp be sent at reduced’rates were repeatedly transmitted at the present rates, and the wires had never yet been clogged by such messages. .

A short debate, which we reproduce j ■ , followed. The Government wore, of course, hostile; and the motion was negatived on the voices, but the ayes incluqcd many xndh'of weight iuthoHcuseiandthey were,jig The Action

Commissioner of Telegraphs repeated much I that he had ? L said at the afternoon I sitting and again laid great 'stress I on the report of the English:; Commission!' 1 His statements to the House were made | confusedly and were occasionally inaudible* d the being that iif several meto-1 hers- minds tnere 'arose a misconception afil to their realbbaring. The,speeches of Major ! Atkinson, Mt Pykb, and- Mr Fitzherbbrt : shodttbat they:'were under the impression ] arguments of acting Coihnpß-'l j of ■^^'^4n|an3 , edr''ibo j establish two things—first, that -the Tele-,, graph in New Zealand urconducted at an annual loss of L 12,000 ; and second, that the Press rates are mainly conducive to that loss, which, of necessity, will beJncMaaed.il they To P«we the fallacy of this second1. utterly erroneous weremost of Mr Reynolds’s I conclusions oh the subject, is the task to I which wa intend addressing ourselves; in a 1 future article.""