The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 1907.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1977, 12 January 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 1907.

To-day the Times presents itself to its readers in an enlarged form, and in a new dress, so to speak. That is to say, the issue is printed on paper that has just arrived from the English manufacturers, with new type manufactured day by day on tho premises by tho linotype machines lately installed in our new offices. These facilities enable tho management to submit a daily paper to its patrons that it is hoped will bo appreciated, for no pains or expense have been spared in the endeavor to give full value for its cost, and to make the Times tho leading paper of the district. It is not, however, tho intention to make any boast about tho quantity of reading matter which tho paper now contains, for it will bo recognised by ovory studious reader that quantity counts for very little in comparison with quality, and that' if quality only were considered to be the groat desideratum, it could easily bo obtained with the free use of scissors and xiasto. It is not the intention of the Times to live a life of plagiarism in that wav, but to originate some ideas of its own and keep in touch with passing events, with a close eye upon anything and everything that may bo at all likely to press unduly upon tho public interest. The highest function of a newspaper is not to content itself with being meroly a record of everyday occurrences—a sort of parish tattler—colored occasionally with an attempt to express a timid opinion in a suggestive rather than an expressive way, and being fearful of saying anything that might possibly offend, even though that something was the truth. The Times will never seek to offend anybody unnecessarily, or do injury to any individual; but at the same time it will not study individual interests where those interests are opposed to the public good. Its present enlargement is due to the fact it has steered that course up to the present, and a just public opinion has in consequence rewarded its efforts in that direction by a measure of support that was almost unlocked for a very short time ago, and hence the proprietors feel justified in launching out at much greater expense to produce a paper commensurate with the public support receivedThis enlargement, too, it may bo said, is but one step in the march of progress, for it is certain that as long as the paper pursues the fearless course that it has mapped out for itself, and so unquestionably retains the public confidence in its policy, already, manifested so liberally by ail appreciative public, so long will the paper continue to enlarge, for it is not the intention of its owners to screw the last penny out of its patrons and put it into their own pockets, giving as little as possible in return. The intention is rather to produce a paper in every way representative of the wants, aspirations, and potentialities of the district and its people, and to afford to everyone a medium through which every just cause may be ventilated, irrespective of persons or parties, so long as tho cause is a just one. Truth and honesty can never be confined within the limits of a coterie, nor can their proper advocacy be bound by such narrow ties, and for that very sufficient reason, the Times will always hold itself aloof from designing conclaves and private understandings that are in any degree subversive of the public good, being con-

fidontly reliant upon tho soundness of public opinion in support of that determination, and it ovor public opinion sworves from that view—if.such a thing bo possible—to support for pioforcnco any othor less laithiul tlionio, thou and not till then, will this journal coaso to represent public opinion; but boloro that event occurs tho Millenium will liavo come and vanished into tho long forgotton recesses of past times.