OFFICIAL INSPECTION OF SHIPS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1883, 6 March 1880, Page 3

OFFICIAL INSPECTION OF SHIPS.

To the ltditor of the Qlohe. Bib, —A question which has more in it from a public point of view than appears at first eight has lately formed the subject of cor-, reapondence between certain members of the “ Fourth Estate ” and the Government. It is that of excluding the representatives of the press from the official inspection made of ships arriving at the port. The Government present and past, as such, is no way impugned by the reporters in respect to the matter, their grievance being one of old standing, and the result of the action, more particularly of the officials immediately concerned in the inspections made, namely, the Immigration or Board of Trade Officers and the Health Officer. The Government have thus been appealed to for a settlement of the misunderstanding. The mere question whether a reporter shall or shall not be permitted to see a ship and her passengers an hour or so sooner than he may wish to, is not of itself of sufficient importance perhaps to make a fuss about. It scarcely, indeed, approaches as near the region of “ burning questions ” as the inteiviewingbusinessibetween the “Times” special reporter and the lunatic Te Whiti at Farihaki. But the real point at issue is of a very different cast, involving, as it does, rights of those who gather news for the public. Say the officials—“ You must not come near until we call you.” Surely this is gagging the Press with a vengeance. Those quasi-judicial Courts held by Customs officials and others, and called Courts of Inquiry, claim to have put the least tinge of a defence for the practice which obtains of excluding the representatives of the Press, and it is a very slight tinge, too, but what defence can be made here ? As one of the members of the Press exclaimed when he was first apprised of this really novel bit of what a modern Yankee would call “ official buldosing ” : “ Verily, my occupation’s gone.” As well he might, for if he is only to see what these discriminating gentlemen please to show him, and see it when they please to let him, surely there will bo no necessity for his boardi-g ships at all. What easier than to get the news when the officials come ashore, for it really means that. Now, in justice to the officials, it must he said of them they have ever shown the greatest of courtesy to the Press representatives and have not unfrequently, at inconvenience to themselves, furnished the reporters with information respecting the inspections made by them. There is, therefore, no ground of complaint of a personal nature, nor is any made or intended. But, in giving orders for the exclusion of the reporters, they seem to have forgotten that the latter are quite as answerable to the public for a faithful performance of their duties in the matter of obtaining reliable information as the officials themselves are to the Government. It is clear that neither the officials nor the reporters visit these vessels for the purpose of gathering information to satisfy their personal curiosity. The people are the real masters of the situation, between whom and the officials and the reporters there is the same measure of accountability,andbut onedifference namely, that the officials send their information through the Government, while the reporters communicate theirs through the columns of the public press. Were this matter, more generally understood and acted upon by the public servants, it would be no insignificant boon to those who, if they would be faithful to their profession, are out at any hour of the day or night when duty calls, gathering information for the public, and to whom the official’s hours of business or the ordinary commercial time of 10 to 4 can have no application. Yours, &e., Ebpoeteb.