GENERAL GOVERNMENT ECONOMY (?)

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 7, Issue 374, 7 May 1866, Page 2

GENERAL GOVERNMENT ECONOMY (?)

{From the Hawke's Fay Times, 23rd April.) Recently we took occasion to refer to wkat we consider a very erroneous system adopted by the General Government—a system as unjust to a great proportion of the public as unfair to a large section of the press;—that of excessively curtailing its advertisements under the pretence of economy. We believe we were the first to call attention to the fact, but we have now the satisfaction of finding our views endorsed by the whole press of the Colony, and re-echoed from North to South. We give this morning, from a Wanganui contemporary, an article in point, to which we would call especial attention, as exposing the effect of the new system in its operation on the press and the public. It is undoubtedly true that the press as a body does a vast amount of work for the Government without any kind of remuneration, in transferring from its Gazettes various notices to the public which do not properly fall under the designation of advertisements; and it is no less true that if the new system of non-advertising be carried out, very much more that does fall under that designation will still he published at the sole expense of the proprietors of the various journals passed by; for it is evident that (paid for or not) the public will look for Government information in the columns of the newspaperbut for all this there will be no certainty of it, as important intelligence, and especially paid advertisements, will always have the preference, even to the exclusion of notices that might otherwise appear. For ourselves, we may say that we have done a large amount of work for the Stafford Ministry during the past few months for which we shall not be remunerated, but for which (the same work) payment will be made to our contemporary, upon the principle of advertising only in one Provincial paper, and with regard to which, had this information not appeared in our columns, a large section of the public would have been altogether deprived. In respect of the very question of economy, we purpose to show that the principle is a false one. Suppose it be, as it actually has been, a call for tenders for public work, the slightest consideration will show that the gcaats&t publicity mast bs the truest economy,

as it is almost certain that more, much more, will have to be paid for work imperfectly advertised than would suffice to cover the difference in the cost of advertising, to say nothing of the manifest-injustice done to that section of the public who do not happen to see the peculiarly favored journal in which such advertisements appear. Next with reference to those specially reverted to by our Wanganui contemporary — such as lists of unclaimed letters. It is most absurd to place such a list in the only place where it is not needed—at the Post Office, for people who go there would get their letters whether such list were posted there or not. The information is needed by those who do not go there, and the only way in which it can be brought to them is through the newspaper. Another point before we have done. Most of our readers are aware that it has hitherto been the practice to advertise the list of new claims to vote in each of the public papers, in order that objections may be taken to such as are not duly qualified, and may be surprised at not seeing such list published as usual in the Times. For their satisfaction we may say that having received notice that we should not be paid for the work, anxious as we are to place everything of interest or importance in our power before the public, the publication of the above list involved so much additional labor and cost that we w r ere compelled to forego it, as indeed must frequently occur when important public notices are left to the pleasure of an editor, instead of being paid for in the legitimate way. In conclusion, we cordially join with our Wanganui contemporary in doing our best to hold up the conduct of the Government to merited reprobation, and trust with it “ that the press of the colony will refuse to notice advertisements that appear in the Gazettes until this system of sponging be discontinued.”