THE PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1572.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1279, 4 September 1872, Page 2

THE PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1572.

Some sucking politicians and some stripling journalists, with their souls full of suspicion, and their heads destitute of discretion, have recently discovered that the money, men, and reputations represented by/the major , part of the Press of New Zealand are prostituted to the purpose of unitedly misguiding thepublic as to facts, and of misleading them, for a few paltry pounds, as to the merits or demerits o } f a Ministry whose existence may cease to-morrow. For one and the same consideration y-rsimpliciter, bribery — the principal papers of New Zealand are said to have associated themselves so as to be the]means of distributing false news, and so as to enable them to forge falsities to be palmed off upon a gullible public. A poor gullible thing the public must, indeed, be if r it could for a moment believe in the existence of such a condemnable conspiracy, or if if could for a second moment permit ito continuance. The statements are controverted by the simplest principles of logic. Even the temporary coherence of such a party of conspirators is improbable, unless human nature has undergone a change which is egegriously for the worse. Even supposing sxich a sad change to have taken place in the morals of all men connected with the Press, the public has surely not so changed a3 not to have the spirit to avenge itself upon a parcel of men who could so basely mislead it, and to send them by the shortest p«ssible route to the society of a vi -Mien— piuieasiun. ■* ~£>nc me statements are as plainly contradicted by facts— facts which are well enough known to moat people who are acquainted with what is moving in the Colony, but to which many may give little heed, while they may give great heed to mendacious assertions prominently made by local prints or "patriots." The assertion i 3, as near as possible, that the New Zealand Press Association does what is described in the first few sentences of the preceding paragraph ; and the author of the assertion with whom wo are more immediately concerned is, we regret to say, Mr John White, member for Hokitika— others only chirping the notes which he crows. Our assertion i 3 that, neither in the objects of the Association, nor in the course of action taken by its agents, is there anything to justify such description. The simple object of a majority of the New Zealand papers associating themselves together was to defray the necessarily heavy cost of receiving the earliest English telegrams transmitted by the Indo-Australian wire, and a monopoly of which had been secured by tho Associated Press of Australia, in advance of another agency to which the Press has in the past owed a great deal. It was a natural consequence of this arrangement that the managers and agents of the transmission of these telegrams should at the same time see to the transmission of others, intercolonial and interprovincial, and of the special telegrams of Parliamentary proceedings. The importation of " party" in matters of politics, into any of these arrangements or their execution, wa3 neterfor a moment contemplated or carried out, and sufficient proof of this is that the Association comprised, and comprises, papers of all shades of politics, without a single complaint that we have seen from one side or the other, that any misuse of their position is being made by their paid agents. The contemptible insinuations which have been mada, and for which Mr White is;directly or indirectly responsible, as to certain newspapers of the Colony conspiring with their, agent at Wellington and with the Ministry, to misreport debates or other items of intelligence for consideration in the shape of advertisements, are flatly contradicted by the fact that precisely the same telegrams are sent to all papers constituting the Association— to Ministerial and Opposition organs alike. The Otago Daily Times, the Lyttelton Times, the Canterbury Press, the Nelson Colonist, the Southern Cross, the New Zealand Herakl represent, as we have placed theni one against the other, exacily the opposite sides of politics. ' Their telegraphic intelligence is identical, and from no one of them' has there come a single complaint of undue political bias being shown in the telegrams which they have received, yet no more difficult task can bo imagined than that of reporting fairly, in a few sentences, the sentiments conveyed in a speech extending over hours. The gentleman who frames these reports, or most of them, lias been made apt by experience, and, if he has any bias n him, there is certainly little reason for t being on the side of tho Ministry. It s the interest of no paper to mislead the public, and, paying every deference to hat proper consideration for self, wo j

venture unhesitatingly to say that there has, among the ordinary items of news, been no attempt on the part of the Association to misuse our columns, while the absence of complaint from recognised Opposition journals, with regard to the Parliamentary summaries, is pretty good guarantee of their correctness. We only wish we could say the same as to telegrams transmitted by other agency than that of the Association— an agency with which Mr White may excusably sympathise, but tho accuracy of whose information one of its own clients— the Dunedin Star — excusably or inexcusably "suspects." ' ' ' The gravamen of the allegations made rests, however, in the statement that the Associated Press exists as an institution simply for the purpose of taking from the Government in bawbees an equivalent for what it gives in " butter." This, we may say, is a statement for which Mr White is not responsible— itpresumes upon people's credulity considerably more than ever he would dream of doing. To dispose of it as an arrant invention, of course it is only necessary to refer again to the fact that the Association is open equally to Opposition and Ministerial journals, and ia composed of both. If among a number of papers so associated there can be any collusion with a view to pecuniary : consideration, it mii3t be upon tho principle of one half the number calling that " black" which the other half call "white," and the total number dividing their aggregate income at the end of the year — an income derived from a Government conniving at this pretty plot, and paying with the one hand for admiration, and with the other for abnae. If this is, even in remote degree, a fair reading of what is meant— aud we can imagine no other — there is certainly something rotten in the state of things generally, and in the Fourth Estate particularly. We apprehend, however, that, on investigation, the indications of decay would be found in, the unduly lively imagination of the inventor of the idea. Another statement which has been made, and which is a little more heinous than the foregoing, is that, of ,£3IOO expended by the Government in advertising, £2764 were paid to the snpporters of the Ministry, and only £426 to those who were neutral or oppose i. The heinousness of the statement is illustrated point blank by the figures themselves, for in one single instance, that of the Wellington Evening Post, the amount is given in the return as JJ4oß— the Posi,be it remembered, being no neutral print, but a journal which is outrageously^ opposed to the Government, and, we might add, to the exercise, on its own part, of the most ordinary discretion or decency. No case, except a bad case, requires bolstering up by the misquotation of figures, and in this case the misquotation to which we refer commenced, in spirit, even with Mr Arthur Collins, the discoverer of that "mare's nest"— the iratter of Government patronage to the Press. When invited by Mr Gisborne to read the amounts' paid to the Auckland and Dunedin papers, he replied, "I have not the amounts here." but he had the amounts which suited his purpose, and which he gave to the House without the explanation which is fairly due— that in several instances the amounts against, the. names of papera represented journals of both daily and weekly issue emauating from one country circulation such as the Government might naturally prefer to select. That the expenses of the Government in this particular, and in some parts of the Colony, have been large is very likely, considering the public notice which had to be given of the system of Assurance and Annuities, to the number of tenders called for public works, to election proceedings, and to other matters of a purely temporary character. That the distribution of that expenditure affected the opinions of the Press, especially in their favor, we take leave to dispute, else there must be a much more intimate understanding as to cause and effect, between the editorial and the book-keeping departments of a newspaper office, than ever, in our humble experience, was found to exist either in these Colonies or elsewhere It is within our knowledge that, in one solitary instance, an attempt was mado to extract from the Government, patronage to the printer for support given to their views vocally, and by vote in a particular place in a particular direction, but the Government discreetly resisted the attempt, and their discretion will not fail them in the future, if they conclude, and act upon the conclusion, that newspapers have clients whose numbers, influence, and interests are of much greater importance to them than the "ins "and " outs " of Ministries, aud that the fair guidance and expression of lrca 1 public opinion is a more paramount cousideration with the profession than the passing patronage of a Government.

The monthly meeting of the Greymoufch Volunteer Fire Brigade took place on Monday evening, Captain Amos and 21 members present. The Secretary reported he had again written to the Victorian and Imperial Insurance offices for a donation to the Bri. gade, but no reply hod been received. Permission was granted to Mr Basch to have the use of the reading room of the Brigade on certain days in October. The new canvas hose having been properly tested at the last practice, it was decided to order 500 ft more of the same from Melbourne. The resignation of Mr May was accepted, and Messrs Furness and Goodhall were elected as new members. The performance which has been graciously promised by Miss Stephenson, Mr Small, Mr Biirford, and the members of the dramatic company, for the benefit of Mrs Tucker and her family, is to take place this evening. The object is a good one, and the performance, as will be seen by the programme, is to have other substantial attractions besides the benevolence of its object. Mr Prince, who has lately cstablishe.l, though as yet only in temporary premises, a grammar school in Greymouth, propounds a plan by which he will be enabled to communicate instruction to youthful lady teachers and to girl pupils, as well as to boys. The )lau appears to be a feasible one, and with Mr Prince's known energy it should be suei cessful, if it is but fairly taken advantage" of as, in the interests of the education of the young, growing, or grown-up, we hope it will be. Mr O'Connor, the District Engineer, is said by the Moss News to be at present in Wellington, with all the pans and surveys of the Mikonui race, and it is expected that in the course of a lew days Mr Brogden will have hi 3 arrangements completed for the commencement of the work. Mi- Brogden ia stated to have in contemplation the con. ttructiott of another large work o! this cha.

racter, tapping the head waters of tho Kawkaka at a high level, and commanding the whole of Fox's, German Gully, and the higher terraces of the Waimoa. It is at the same time suggested that a branch of the Mikonui bo taken a-i far as possible towards the Upper Totara, iutersecting all the fine sluicing countty above Mr Mark Scott's present claim, and thus open up a largo area of payable ground. ! Messrs Hugh Cassidy, Daniel Lynch, John Tait, and William Todd have been nominated, for election as Borough Councillors in Hokitika. Messrs Macfarlane, Taib, and Todd were the retiring members. A fine nugget of gold, weighing over Goz, was unearthed by Messrs P. Cummings and party, on Saturday, iv Jones's Creek, Totara district. In theJSupreine Court; Hokitika, on Monday, Thomas Henry Morrison was found guilfcy of tho larceny of some boots entrusted to him for sale. Sentence was deferred* The Grand Jury found true bills on two indictments against W. H. Barbor, and on three indictments against Chamberlain. Mr IT. A. Gordon, manager of the Cassins and Morning Star Gold Mining Company, has left Kosa for Christchurch, for the purpose of submitting the prospectus of the amalgamated companies at Koss. In Holdtika this enterprise, it is sail, has received most encouraging support, whilst iv Ross over two thousand shares have been placed. Mr Tribe, according to the authority of tho Ross News, has been very industriously engaged for some time past in committeework connected with the new Gold Mining Bill. There is a want of concord, however, among the West Coast members, which will not fail to make itself felt in all legislation in whicb- we are peculiarly interested. Party warfare runs so high, that it is extremely doubtful if either the Gold Mining Bill or the "unification" movement will have any practical effect given to it this session. In the struggle for place and profit,, the real interests of the country are neglected. The Gold Fields correspondent of the Dunedin Star writes :— I have heard that Grace's claimonthe Shotover wa3 sold today at Queenstown to a buyer on behalf of the defendants (Grace and Co.) for L 5900, that one hour was allowed for the money to be paid ; that Grace and Co. proposed to defer the payment until an action now pending in the Distri ct Court shall bo decided, but that this arrangement was refused. The claim was again put up for sale and knocked down to a party working some rich ground in the same neighborhood for LSOOO. This second sale was at the risk of the former purchasers. In the House of Representatives, on a recent evening, Mr E. J. Brown asked the Coloaial Secretary, whether bailiffs of Resident Magistrates' Courts are entitled to charge auctioneers' commission, in addition to all reasonable costs and charges, on sales under distress warrants ? He wished to ascertain if there was any uniform practice with respect to the collection of commission charged by bailiffs under distress warrants. He understood that in some places the bailiffs held the sales, to the great detriment of the auctioneers, who had to pay license fees. Mr Gisborne said that he could not satisfactorily answer thehonorable gentleman as tc the interpretation of the law, because any opinion he might give would not be conclusive. With regard to the practice, he had ascertained that in Wellington and Christchurch tho bailiffs employed an auctioneer, who received 5 per cent, commission. In Dunedin, the bailiff charged commission as well as costs and charges. the whole of which was paid to the public account. The bailiff was a salaried officer. Ho w«uld endeavor to ascertain, for the information cf ,the hpnpjrajjlejre^