The Globe. MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 1878.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1407, 19 August 1878, Page 2

The Globe. MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 1878.

It is astonishing how peoplo who live in glass houses will at times, contrary to the veriest dicta of common sense and of self-preservation, persist in throwing stones at their neighbours. And indeed the older some of these individuals grow, the more reckless they are while practising that brickbat-slinging kind of pastime. Tho other 'lay, for instance, our vorsatilo and twinkling friend, the Star—postprandially disposed evidently—got upon its favorite dunghill, and, when there, tried with one of its accustomed cock-a-doodlo-dos, to transfix the Press with some of thoso flimsy arrows which it so frequently borrows from its venerablo compeer who illuminates the morning skies. It was all about some twaddling effusions of that celebrated orator and friend of the " benofactor of the human race," Mr. Roes —an erratic gentleman well known in political and other circles for his humble ways of doing and saying things, and whom a grateful country has to thank a good deal "for his disinterested and self-sacrificing attempts to assist in blowing the Ministerial bellows. According to the Star, this gentleman, who represents one Auckland constituency, when lately acting the pilot-fish to Sir George Grey in Ins endeavors to bring the millenium within the reach of the meanest denizen of this effete realm, stated that tho Press proprietary "were at the present moment performing a contract for the Government:' This contract, the Star triumphantly exclaimed—was a very large affair, having relation to tho printing work required to bo done for several departments, "and is many times more valuable the ordinary run of Government advertising which falls to newspapers. Yet, notwithstanding the fact that they hold this contract from tho Government which they constantly and bitterly abuso—ignoring their duty as journalists to fairly and calmly criticise their public acts—they kept publishing in their advertising columns that they were justified in ' resisting any attempt on tho part of tho Government to use Government ad.

vortising as a means of securing political support.' " And then our evening contemporary, clapping its feeble wings, went on ringing the changes upon the theme, declaring that there could not surely ho any greator humbug than all this. Wc do not wish to weary the public, as our friend is apparently anxious to do, with a discussion upon what might fairly bo said to bo of but littlo moment to the community at largo. Yet, after such a bellicose display of wilful mendacity, a word or two as to " the humbug of tho thing' may not b thought out of place. It is another amusing instance of how well tho Star follows its old motto—" having no case, abuse tho other side." No one bettor than our little friend and its obese morning paront, knows how singularly out of trim those statements are in reference to the so-called fat contract the Press is supposed to bo executing just now for tho Government. The work was absolutely tendered for by tho Lyttelton Times as well as by tho Press, and the latter—presumably better able to judge of fairly remunerative prices, and possessing perhaps better moans at command to execute it—became tho contractor, through tho old-fashioned habit which some pooplo have of accepting tho lowest tenders, and which custom tho Government choso to follow on the occasion. And now note tho fervent pondorousnoss of tho Star's argument. If, as it says, tho contract is a " fat" one, whore can tho much, if self-vaunted, patriotism of our Jesuitical allies of Cathedral Square bo ? Their tender was considerably "fatter" than that of the Press; on which side, therefore; would any unprejudiced taxpayer feel inclined to weigh tho balance of selfdenying patriotism ? If, as asserted by the Sin?-, this printing work is "many times more valuable than tho ordinary run of Government advertising," is not the Lyttetton Times selfconvicted out of the very mouth of its evening satellite, of having grossly attempted to prick the Treasury bladders in a most extortionate manner ? People of plain common-sense, with brains oven less delicately poised than those of our friends in Printing Square, would naturally conclude that if a public journal be in receipt of " fat" pickings from tho Government —as the Press is now accused of being—that journal shows uncommon independence of mind if it do not cling to that Government's coat-tails and— Lyttelton Timeslike—worship the very earth it walks upon. As a matter of fact, that erratic print and its flatulent offshoot have managed to impalo themselves upon the horns of a very unpleasant dilemma. They cannot very well get off those rugged points upon which thoy have wriggled and wriggled until the commiseration of tho passers-by is dooply excited. To fill its columns with fat, or lean, Government notices, does not maintain a newspaper or make it popular. The public have a very keen sense of how so-called leaders of public opinion servo them. Our Cathedral square friends have, it would seem, selected to sell thoir birthright for a paltry mess of pottage, and independent-minded people are quite aware of tho fact, and they act and speak accordingly. All the Pocsniffianism in the world will not dispel the impression, nor will all the trickery and shoddiness with which our confreres so skilfully blind outsiders' eyes, assist in white-washing them in public opinion. The Lyttelton Times has made its bed, and though it is not composed of " fat" contracts, upon it it must rest —let it be ever so uneasily—until that time at least when an opportunity offers of once more changing its skin and swallowing its convictions (?) Our contemporary is an adept at this kind of thing, and keeps a reversible coat on the premises for the purpose.