Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, 6th JANUARY, 1865.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume V, Issue 210, 6 January 1865, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, 6 th JANUARY, 1865.

A criterion of the progress of any people in civilization and the enjoyment, of genuine liberty is to be found in the state which-is held in that community by the public press. In all autocratic governments /we find the press taxed and controlled by the ruling ’ power, and we may say as a consequence, the people are reduced,to a condition bordering upon serfdom. In our own mother country, and within the memory of many of us, the press has been far from untaxed, but this was on all hands acknowledged to be a most un-English and undesirable state of things, and the mighty battles fought on this point by the friends of progress with the now almost extinct" Conservative party, are become matters of history. Suffice it to say that the triumph of intellect and freedom over prejudice and domination has become nearly complete. The tax upon paper has been removed ; the stamp on newspapers has ceased to he compulsory, and even the postage stamp on all papers forwarded by the ordinary mail-hag, has, in consequence of the certainty, rapidity, and economy, with which large parcels can he transmitted from one end of the British Islands to the other,ceased t<>affect to any appreciable degree the circulation ami enjoyment of the productions of the press, owing .to the vast and rapid advance of good government towards meeting the wants of an enlightened Public, we find at the present day that many thousands of our fellow-countrymen are daily and weekly in the enjoyment of their newspapers, and consequently in the way of becoming more intelligent and better subjects and men, who, by the former obnoxious system of taxation, were entirely deprived of this boon. -

.. In this colony we have, up to the jiresent lime, been in the full enjoyment of that great blessing, always in the power of a Government to bestow, ami certainly the mark of a wise and good Government-—a pref s free from fiscal restraint; and if we may judge from the progress made by the Fourth Estate, arid the intellectual status of the 'population, even in outlying districts not entirely removed from the influence of the newspaper (and we do not know of any such district) this freedom has,been '.attended with the happiest result, and has afforded'promise to the outlying settler and the Government, although.that removed from general and frequent Muence with kis fellows; he would still

by this means hold fast to that state to which he has attained, and not relapse Into semi* Daroarism, as is tne ttfiuleiicy of €vcry tuau* exposed to the influence of solitude, and igao rant of passing events. Not only .so, but it has been to many, even of the humbler class of settlers, a source of the greatest pleasure that they could send to friends left behind them in their lost but uaforgotter. home, occasionally as they were able, a newspaper printed in their neighborhood, knowing that what was of interest to them, would, from this cause alone, be equal interest to their friends. And if we consider, in the third place, the -progress made by the colony up to this time,’we cannot fail to see that it has been in great measure owing to the information shed.abroad in the Mother Country by the Colonial Press, circulated there by hundreds per each monthly mail. ; But now a retrograde s‘ep has been taken by our paternal Govemmeet, who, "for the sake of adding to the Treasury the paltry svim to be raised by this means, have imposed a tax of one penny on each newspaper that may be transmitted through the post office, either to any other part of the colony, or to any part of tlie world to which,- up to this time, they may have been sent free. We venture to predict a very short existence to an experiment so fraught with evil consequencesandsoeminentlyunpopular as this will certainly be, we feel certain that the number of papers transmitted by post will he reduced from 50 to 70 per cent., in fact scarce one will be forwarded by that means that can m any way be avoided. : : We shall takfe an early opportunity of recurring to this topic, heartily regretting that a new and almost untried Executive" should have advised his Excellency to issue Jtis late proclamation. . '