The Globe. FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 1878

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1352, 14 June 1878, Page 2

The Globe. FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 1878

The readers of the Star last evening were no doubt startled and surprised at tho appearance of an .article in its columns of a character somewhat different to tlioso which are usually published there. It was all about our poor self and our morning contemporary tho Press. What our friend had to say about the Globe is scarcely worthy of notice. It is a purely business matter, in which tho readers of the Star are in no way interested. But it served one purpose; it gave our contemporary an opportunity for tho display of its mild wit, which, harmless and innocent as it was, was quite refreshing after the prodigious twaddle which lias characterised its columns for weeks past. Because the Globe has, in a desire to give its readers every facility for learning tho events of the day, taken the very natural step of noticing what is going on in the Theatre Royal, our con temporary treats its readers to nearly a column of self-laudatory utterances, which are not in the best of taste, and which irresistably remind the reader of the suggestive puffs of Mr Udolpho Wolfe. But this is by tho way. Our object in the present article is to discuss the remarkable plea set up by tho Star in defence of the course the Government have taken in deciding to advertise in tho Li/tlelfoii Times, and not in the Press. After an assertion regarding the circulation of tho Times, the value of which is easily estimated, our contemporary goes on to say : But; the Government were kind and candid to a degree. They had nc hesitation in promulgating the principle they were prepared to act upon, that, all things being equal they would give their advertisements to their friends. We should imagine that this is the line of conduct any business firm or any private person would pursue. A selection having to be made, he would bo unworthy of the slightest consideration or respect who threw over bis friends and gave the advantage to his opponents. No sensible persons do such things, although it seems tho proper course for our' contemporaries of Cashel street. But it must net be forgotten that things are not equal, the advantage being wholly and greatly in favour of the 'limes.

So it would appear that our contemporary thinks it is quite tho proper thing that the revenue of the colony should bo spent in " rewarding" thoso journals which support the policy of tho Government. A more unblushing and barefaced defence of bribery and corruption it would 1)0 difficult to discover. Tho Star seems to forgot that Ministors aro not spending their own money whon they are paying for Government advertisements, but that of the taxpayers. " A business firm or a private person " does not, as a rule, advertise for the sake of patronising particular journals, and so takes care to distribute such favours in such a manner as to gaiu tho widest publicity. But, according to the opinion of our contemporary, Government advertisements are not published for the sake of giving information to the people of the colony at all, but to reward the friends of tho Ministry. And our contemporary sees nothing wrong in this—in fact, glories in tho shame of tho Government and the recipients of their bounty. The titars assertion of the lofty consistency of the Lyttelton Times must bo exceedingly amusing to those who aro at all acquainted with the past career of our Gloucester street contemporary. Why, the Times has always been notorious for the unblushing manner in which it has endeavoured to follow popular opinion. The slightest sign of a change of view on tho part of the people has boon followed by a hesitating support of tho new doetrine. But onco assured that the wind had firmly set in a particular direction, and our contemporary, blindly anxious to reach tho favored haven whore a comfortable rest could bo procured at tho expense of the public rights and interests which it pretended to advocate, at onco set sails to catch the rising breeze. It is true that there is ono notorious exception to tho above rulo. Onco in his long career has the Lyttelton

Times been known to tako the unpopular sido o£ politics, and so the Star, on behalf of our contemporary, is never tired of flaunting that little figment of " apparent" virtue in the face of the public. Tho Lyttelton Times, we are told, " for seven years stood like a solitary beacon on the bleak shores of opposition." Our poor old friend had evidently a dreary time of it. hence tho eager solicitude with which tho Ministerial smile has been courted ever since. But wo are sorry to say that our contemporary got but little credit for self-sacrifice on that memorable occasion when ho went into opposition. No ono believed that tho stop was taken in tho sacred course of duty. We do not for a moment of course assert that disappointed ambition and personal animosity had anything to do with the change, but it is nevertheless a fact that there was a remarkable coincidence between tho change of front of tho Times and the termination of tho brief but inglorious career of tho Resident Minister for the Middlo Island. The alacrity, moreover, with which the Star comes forward to disclaim on behalf of tho lyttelton Times tho slightest suspicion of corrupt motives in tho support of tho Government, is worthy of notice Wo were not aware, till our contemporary raised tho point, that any ono could have had so mean an opinion of that journal as to believe that his political views would bo influenced by so paltry a cause as a few advertisements. But the Star alouo will be to blamo if the idea, ouco suggested, gains hold of the public mind. Such, then, are the views of a professed " Liberal" organ, regarding tho duty of the Government in the distribution of public advertisements. The doctrine laid down, although not now, has not hitherto boon seriously advocated in Now Zealand. But the poison of Groyism is ovidently doing its work in some quarters. Wo have witnessed the disgraceful spectacle of tho public money boing used in the form of Government steamers and special trains to promulgate tho Premier's veiws, and so to secure to himself and friends a continuance of office and patronage. But it has been reserved for tho Star, with tho consent of tho Times we suppose, to unblushingly advocate the employment of public money, in the shape of the price paid for advertisements, as the reward of political support. This in New Zealand is called "liberalism," but in less enligtened England it would receive the

the name of " bribery and corruption."