THE BOGUS TELEGRAM.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1616, 25 April 1879, Page 2

THE BOGUS TELEGRAM.

[By Teleqeaph.]

The Wellington '‘Post” to-night says; — ’* The cablegram piracy exposure shows the poor subterfuges of the pirates. General amusement has been caused by their being trapped, and by their ridiculous position. Further exposures are in store, and more traps are being laid for them. Yesterday’s fiasco was complete and irresistibly comical. The exposure of the system so long practised by the Press Association caused an immense amount of amusement in town last night. Copies of the “Post” were largely rushed for, and the account of the pirates self-con-viction and utter humiliation by means of a “bogus” message, a plan precisely analagous to the detection of a thief by leaving a marked coin in the way, was read with intense interest, the perusal being invariably followed by roars of laughter and the exclamation, “ What an awful sell for the poor ‘ Chronicle.’ ” That paper indeed was placed in a position which, had it not brought it on itself, would have deserved and received the deepest pity. After actually publishing the stolon “bogus” message as an “extra,” with such a loud flourish of trumpets, it is hard to imagine a more mortifying situation thm that unhappy paper was placed in when the dreadful intelligence was received that the “ shilling” was “ marked.” The “ Chronicle” very shabbily tries to throw the responsibility on the Wellington manager of the Press Association, Mr Gillon. This is a most unfair ard a very discreditable way of trying to wriggle out of the trap into which the journals forming the Press Association have fallen through their own meanness and cupidity. The “ Chronicle,” as one of the papers forming the Press Association, is well aware that Mr Gillon is simply the medium for distributing the telegrams which they, as his principals, have arranged to be transmitted to him. He is simply the servant of the association of which the “ Chronicle” is one member, and has no personal means of judging whether the messages sent to him from Sydney be stolen or not. It is his employers, the papers forming the association, who have planned these piracies of telegrams, and who alone are responsible for the fhef's and on them will full the whole weight of the ridicule and contempt which they have so richly earned by their despicable conduct. All such attempts as that made last night by the “ Chronicle” to shuffle out ef this dreadful fix by the endeavoring to cast dirt at the manager of their own association will recoil with redoubled

force on themselves, and increase the odium of their position. The "Chronicle” says: —“Ihfl Auckland ‘Evening Star’ has done many ini* famous nets in its time, but this last one transcends them all.” We do not exactly know what is the “ all” referred to, nor how that “ all” gets into the question, but we take it for granted that something very dreadful is meant. Of course the “ Chronicle ” thinks it an “infamous act ” to lay such a trap. Every thief caught by a marked shilling being found on him regards the device as unspeakably wicked, but society is the gainer nevertheless. If he had not stolen the shilling he would not have been caught, and if the Press Association had not stolen our telegrams they would not have fallen into the trap. Let us hope it will be a great lesson to them. For their own sakes it will be well if they lay it to heart, for we warn them that this is only a beginning of the retribution. Nemesis lies in wait for them if they persevere in their misdeeds, and that they are doing so is evident from the publication in last night’s “ Chronicle ” of several of our special messages which had been stolen cn route. Let them beware, however', for plenty more “ bogus ” items are being prepared for them, and will be brought out at suitable intervals, sometimes long sometimes short. For the future, when they steal our messages, they will never be safe, but will always be expos d to the risk that they may have stolen a marked “shilling” and that it may be “found on them.” They are now fairly warned, and have only themselves to thank for the consequences.