Spirit of the Press.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 6, Issue 312, 5 October 1865, Page 1

Spirit of the Press.

THE PItESS CONTEOI BILL.

' [From the Lyttelton Times, September 20. J Avebtc singular piece of legislation is: now being attempted at Wellington, to which we desire to call public attention. A Bill has ■been introdaced by the Government which, under the modest title of “ The Printers and Act, 1865,” resuscitates a variety,of obsolete measures against printers and proprietors of newspapers, first enacted in the good old s days of King George 111., at a time when the nation was in a frenzy of distraction and lest the principles of the French Revolution -should overrun the country and subvert the foundations of the throne/ ' v ;

For fear that pur readers should think we are romancing, we reprint the measure introduced by the Government, which, by the way, now.appears iu amended form,, and shorn of a part of its most objectionable features. As we belong to the class round which the Government, in its enlightened policy, is desirous of throwing this; net, we have taken the trouble to look up the originals froin which the liberal minded statesman who drafted this Bill derived his information. We can assure our readers that some of the most important provisions of the Bill now before the Assembly are derived from ah English Act Of the last century,— ■39 Geo. 3, c. 79, —imposed for the following purposes: we give a part of the preamble at length. “ Whereas a traitorous conspiracy has been carried on in conjunction with the persons from time to time exercising the , powers of government in France, to overturn the laws, constitution, and government, and every existing establishment, civil and ecclesiastical,'both in Great Britain and Ireland, and to dissolve the connection between the two kingdoms, so necessary to the,, prosperity and security of both ; and whereasin pursuance of such design, ; andj in order to carry the same into effect, divers societies have, of late years, been instituted in of a new and dangerous nature, inconsistent with public tranquility, with the existence of regular, government, particularly of certain societies of United Englishmen, United Scotsmen, United Britons, United Irishmen, and the London 'Corresponding Society,” and so on. - Under .the provisions of this;Acti printers and proprietors of printing offices were bound to register their presses arid types under penalty, in order to stop the distribution of seditious and treasonable phamphlets among the people by unknown; printers. , From this Act, then, have been taken the principal clauses cpnnected with the registration of printing presses in the Bill now proposed to be made law in New,Zealand. That part of the Bill referring to the registration, of newspapers appears tc have been.extracted from Acts 6 = •and 7 Will. IV., c. 76. These Acts essentially stamp acts,* and the clauses borrowed from them were'introduced to enable the Commissioners of Stamps and Taxes to collect the newspaper stamp duties with greater ease and certainty, and to indict penalties upon defaulters. ~lt is worthy, of remark that the very offensive clause 19 of the proposed Bill; ~ which enables all penalties in curred under the Act to be recovered in a Summary-manner before two Or more Justices •of the Peace, and hands over half the amount to the informer, does not form apy part of ■-.English-Acts repealed in the first schedule, • but has evidently been raked up from the ■older and much severer Act 39, Geo. 111., 1799. ,- Udder all the repealed English Acts the Attorney-General must consent to prosecution dor penalties, but not under the Act 1799, which is taken as the model of the .Bill about to fe -We have- endeavored to discover, from every available source, the motive of the Government fot introducing such a Bill, but T without success. The reasons'-which have been suggested are so manifestly absurd that they rare .hot not- worthy of . notice. We have racked our memory in vain to find a Cause sufficient fbV so viblerit and 1 offensive ai measure. Gf What have the Kew Zealand papers been guiltylo deserve such treatment 7

Why. are they to have pitfalls set for them on all sides in the shape of penalties, and why are their offices to be beset by spies and informers ? What has been the 1 crime which has so frightened the Government as to make it forget all the lessons of experience and fall back upon an exploded system of legislation ? In the name of the press of New Zealand we appeal to the public of the colony to interfere, and spare us the dignity with which we are threatened. Here and there, it is possible that an isolated instance may be pointed out where a journal has attempted to carry out a policy mischevious to the Government and the people of the colony. As a rule such papers have met with the contempt they deserved, and whidh was their best punishment. To assert that a case of this kind proves the necessity for the revival of a law originally framed; for the purpose of punishing seditious and treasonable persons, is as absurd as it is false. We assert without fear of contradiction that, on the whole, the press of New Zealand is a credit to the colony; and we call upon the representives of the public in the General Assembly to see that justice is done to a body of men to whom that public is certainly largely indebted for the faithful performance of very onerous and important labours. :