“STOP THE PRESS!!!”

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XIV, Issue 627, 5 November 1868, Page 3

“STOP THE PRESS!!!”

(Taranaki Herald, 3rd October.) Two very important Acts have been passed ibis session m the House of Assembly, one entitled “ The Libel Ac';, 1803,” and the other “ The T)„! ' ....... .-.,. 3 AT T* rnuluio auu igjv> j Act, 18G3.” The former—because it | happened to be for the benefit of thej public, in enabling them to knew wbatj transpires at public meetings without endangering the proprietors of newspapers to prosecution from libel —was studiously ciiticised, and underwent an amount of opposition scarcely creditable to the members of our august Assembly. The other—because it restricted the powers of the press, and tended to lower it and within the grasp of any unscrupulous Ministry that may be in office, giving them power almost to crush it—was allowed to be smuggled through the two houses, without so much as a remark from any member in its defence. Such is the enlightened state of New Zealand in the nineteenth century.

The Libel Act consists of one clause, and although the “ privilege” is uot nearly so liberal ;:s Sir dolman O’Loghlon’s “Libel Bill” recently passed iu the Imperial Parliament, we must be thankful for the mercies we are receiving from our enlightened statesmen now assembled in Wellington. But whatever benefit the Press may derive from the above Act, the second Act entirely obliterates. Whenever the Press is attacked the public are the sull'erers, and it is the public in this instance who are to have the screw turned on them.

The penny stamp on newspapers was the first attempt to stifle public opiuion in this Colony ; but the journals that survived that indiction. are now bound hand and foot by an obnoxious Act which renders proptietors of newspapers liable to the insidiouuud treacherous prosecution of an} common informer, who is likewise permitted to participate in penalties indicted under the Act. The Libel Act has a preamble stating the reasons fin its enactment; the Printers and Newspapers Begistratnm Act has not so much as a line stating why it is wanted.

i’iiri first we heal'd >4' it was in ’.he “ Hansard,” where we liiui the Ilmmrable James Crowe Richmond asking leave to introduce mi " Act to ptvvent the printing and publishing of books and papers by persons not known/’ On seeing this we at once wrote to a member in the House for a copy <d the sa id Hill, which wo receive;! bv the mail on Sunday last, when we learnt that the Bill had passed a third reading in the Legislative Council, and has by this time, we have im doubt, become a law of the Colony. The Honorable James Crowe Richmond, and the likewise Honorable Theodore .Miuet Haultaiu, were instructed to prepare the Hill, which according to the Hansard, they did ; and brought forth a bantling worthy of them in every respect. This vampirioal Act was introduced by the Honorable James Crowe Richmond in these words:

"It required all presses to be regis-j tered, and that the name of the printer! should be affixed to every publication.! The second provision was that news-1 papers should be registered/’ To this! no one could object. “The penalties! were not excessive,” says the Honor-j able James Crowe Richmond, in j another part of his speech. “ £k(J being the highest; and that the greater part of the provisions would not increase the labour of these who had |printing presses.” 0, that a man Ishould say a thing was white when it jwas black, and forget to add that it I was extremely dirty likewise. The ! penalties, according to the copy of the (Act we have had sent us states, “that ithe printer shall, for every copy so 'published, but not for more than ■twenty-live copies in the whole, forfeit! ;a sum not less than A 5, and not morel jthan £20.” So instead of the penalties not exceeding £2O, had the honor-! 1•® _ i iable Tames Crowe Richmond—that! ! model of veracity —said Five Hundred ! IPouxds, he would have been nearer! the mark. | We will now proceed to give ai synopsis of this Act, and then dwell further on the points that are likely to be injurious to the printers and newspaper proprietors in this Colony. The j Act is to come into operation on the list of January, 1869, and is divided 'into three parts —1. Regulation of

Printing Presses. 2. J'legictration of Newspapers. 3. Penalties. Part I.—The Registration of Printing Presses compels every person who has a printing press or types for printing to give notice in writing attested by a witness, to the registrar of the Supreme Court. likewise, that they snail print i upon the first and last leaf of every pa-| per or book printed from the said type, | the name,address. and private resilience! of the printer. That a copy shall bej kept of anything printed on which the printer shall place the name and place of abode of the person employing him' to print the same. And should anyone issue or “deliver in any public place, or otherwise expose to public view any printed paper upon which the name. &e., of the printer is not placed,’ 1 (having been accidentally omitted for instance), “ any person in whose presence any such act is done may seize and deliver him to same constable to he taken before a Justice of the Peace, who may hear and determine whether the person has been guilty of an offence against the Act.” Therefore if an election poster, got out in a hurry, and is being posted without the printer’s imprint on it, the opposition candidates! can have summary vengeance, not! only on the printer, hut also on the unfortunate bill-sticker. Any Justice have may power to search fur a printing press as he would fur au illicit still.

Part ll.—Refers to the Registration of Newspapers, which is very similar to the above, but enacts likewise, that at the end of every newspaper supplement sheet thereof, the Christian name and surname, addition, and place of abode of its printer and publisher, with a true description of where the newspaper is printed and published shall be aliixud, and any omission of the same, or part ihereoi shall be pr'inni facie evidence of wilful default against any such printer or publisher/ 1 By this, should in extra with important news, or slips of anything, be issued hurriedly from an elhce, and by accident the imprint, or the date in the imprint, be left, uncorrected, (which is very likely to Happen in a small elhce where hands are not plentiful) the printer beemnes liable to a line of ihvi-; Ui:.\i>itKl> PuUNIiS. Part 111.— Ihe penalties are as we have snneh, limited to a sum of A2U lor every copy up to twenty*live, and may be recovered by a common in*

iormer in a, summary way ; but. we will give the dun so intact : —*‘All pe unities incurred under this Act may ue recovered in a summary manner, tie-lore two or iinir Justices of the Peace, in Lite manna’ provided in and by the ‘Justices oi the Peace Act, ItitjO," and one moiety of every penalty so recovered in respect of any oliauv against the first part of this Act, shah i>e l / the use oi the person who inioiiiib or sues lor such penalty.” Unr readers will thus perceive that we are at the mercy of our very

“ devil/' who, perhaps, through an ivit anxiety to dL-seminale the news, may dispose of several copies of an extra without our imprint attached, and ■ thereby entail on us the penalty of nut less than A 1 ho. Another iustauce we may give which is very likely to happen in some oltice. An overseer in Ids hurry at uigut may accidentally forget to place the imprint at the loot oi ine last column ot a supplement to a ! newspaper ; the forms go to press, are' printed oli, and issued. The uexti morning the proprietor is met, 01/ coming to his office, with a summons, which has been taken out by a common informer, lie appears before the Justice of the Peace, and is fined no less than Alffs nor more than ASOO. It is no use bis pleading an accident of his employe. The Act does not recognise accidents, but distinctly states that “ any omission of the same or I part thereof shall, be primd fade evidjence of wilful default against any such 1 printer or publisher/' The honorable James Crowe llichmond must not tell us that it is only a copy of an English Act be has introduced, or we shall have to contradict him in plainer terms than he may like. We have been too long connected with the printing profession not to know the law of England as regards printing and publishing, and did our space permit it, we would explain to him in full bow in clause 5, “ and the ’’ in the place of the little word “ or :s makes a great difference in the sentence

“ upon the first and the last leaf,” and will cause an infinite amount of trouble and extra work, which any journeyman printer (if be knows his trade) will hear us out. The penalties inj England do not exceed A 5 for each copy up to five-aud-twenty copies, and no action or proceeding can be comexcept in the name of the AttorneyGeneral or Solicitor General. Thus no person can suft except in those names, the use of which is not likely to be granted unless the publication he of a seditious, or immoral tendency, It puzzels us to think what the printers of Vv elllngtou have been about to! allow such an Act to pass. Surely they must have been asleep, or they would have used some exertion to have got the last clause amended and. made like the English Act, —if the Act was really wanted at all. We may ar a future period, go further into the details of this obnoxious and immoral Act—(for any Act which puts a respectable tradesman in the power of common informers, is immoral in the extreme,) and we hope our voice will not he too late to raise such a hornet’s nest round the devoted heads of the (present. Ministry, that they will only jhe too glad for the future to deal fairly i with the Fourth Estate of this Colony, ami not by such underhand and treaI cherous means ever again attempt to (Sror the Iff: ess.