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Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1160, 17 April 1872, Page 2

The Wawjanui Chronicle, we notice, has changed hands, and Mr 'Hutchison, who has for the past six years been its proprietor and editor, retires from a profession with which he has been long and honorably connected. Though Mr Hutchison chose a quiet place for his colonial home, and a place in which newspapers have not proved particularly profitable as " properties," Mr Hutchison is one of the oldest newspaper, men in the country, and has in his time undergone an enormous amount of labor in connection with what is at all times an arduous profession. In the Home country he was what we may justifiably describe as an eminent provincial journalist,, and will be long remembered, in many parts of Scotland particularly, aa a man who took an active interest in public affairs, and who by bis pen contributed considerably to the accomplishment of many measures which have improved the social and political condition of the people. As a writer Mr Hutchison first came into notice by his authorship of pariiphlets on the "Poor Law," on ',' Salmon Fisheries," and on the struggle which culminated in the creation of the Free Church of Scotland. 1 His first connection with the Press in an editorial capacity, if wo are not mistaken, was in Aberdeen, where he conducted the Free Church organ until his views were conceived to be too liberal for the party whom he represented. He was tubsequently connected with the Ihmkt

Advertiser, one of the ablest of Scotti3h journals, and he afterwards assumed the editorship of the Fife Herald. He was at intervals a contributor to another newspaper in the Far North, the John o' -^Groat Journal, and continued to be so until ho took charge of an Irish journal, the Newr.y Herald. ., Emigrating to New Zealand, he again became associated with the Press as proprietor and conductor of the Wanganui Uironicle, but, for his professionalreputation,thelocalitywasnotwell chosen. In another and a larger field his labors would have been more eminent^ and, what is more to the purpose, . more serviceable to the country in which he and his [family have become permanent settlers. An iutimate acquaintance with the extent and value of Mr Hutchison's labors in the past entitles us to make this friendly reference to him on the occasion of his quitting a profession with which he has been connected for many years, and to acknowledge the services which he has rendered professionally in connection witli many popular agitations which have been productive of practical good. We may be pardoned also for quoting the valedictory address in which such an old member of the profession of letters retires from his labors. In a recent issue of the Chronicle, Mr Hutchison says : — " Six years of incessant mental labor will tell upon the health of the most robust, and in this case, a respite— at all events, a change of labor — seems fairly earned. With tho present nurrber of the Chionicle, therefore, the retiring editor'i connection with it ceases. In making this announcement he seeks to acknowledge the kindness with which, generally speaking,- his efforts as a journalist have been received. No one knows as well as he does himself, how imperfect those efforts were ; the continuous demands of a daily newspaper leave no time for those second i/houghts which are considered best ; and it is quite impossible for an editor, if he will do his duty with any degree of faithfulness, to avoid giving offence, sometimes doing so in quarters where he least intended it. Pointing out abuses and censuring wrong stirs up illblood, do it as gently as one may. In some respects, too, the present writer has not been able to fall in with popular views. He has never considered success as a test of merit, nor been disposed to regard wickedness or dishonesty as less despicable because, for. the time being, it may have been triumphant. He has also frequently found integrity and,patriotism of the true ring among men of the party or parties from whom he differed, and never hesitated to say so, contrary to all colonial rules of partisanship. But he knows that his aims have always been disinterested and liberal — that he never trimmed to suit personal or party notions — that he spoke what he believed — and that he invariably sought, according to his lights, to help on the progress and advance the best interests of these districts and of the Colony. 'What is writ, is writ ; would it were worthier.' These views may constitute what some are pleased to call ' eccentric politics,' but the writer has the fullest faith in their power and permanence all the same. And thus, with thanks to his many friends and grateful recollections of past years, he closes his editorial labors in the meantime, hoping, however, to have other although less prominent ways and means of working with his fellow settlers for the common welfare."