Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, JULY 20, 1880. DEFENDING THE HELPLESS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 94, 20 July 1880, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, JULY 20, 1880. DEFENDING THE HELPLESS.

No one who has the privilege or misfortune to know the Editor of the Palmerston Times will deny that from some cause or other — either birth, training, inherent tendency, or " natural descent," — he has an affinity for mud, and no respectable person (we use the word literally) ever approaches him without becoming unpleasantly conscious of the fact. It was therefore not without some reluctance that we gave him a nvild castigation in last issue for his unfairness to the Foxton Bailiff, as we felt it was at best a dirty job to engage in. Still there are times when it is necessary,, in the defence of persons whose hands are tied, to thrash dirty people, even at .the risk of getting one's hands besmeared in the opera-, tibn.- We uncterßfllrflie wferkf- fulTy' understanding what the penalty would be, and we now proceed to deal in a

plain, matter-of-fact way with the re Pty4ft£*K< strictures. En passant, it nlay be -remarked that the underlying cause of his latest outburst (of i course we use the word figuratively) against us, is, that the County authorities decline to recognise in his journal auy thing more than the organ of Palmerston North, and systematically refuse to insert in it the advertisements relating exclusively to outlying parts of the County. The paltry jealousy.of his nature causes him to abominate us, because we happen to receive the notices he does not.~ Henoe-this latest attack. Whoever comes across the path of this blatant journalist, and refuses him an advertisement .or has the audacity to insinuate that his paper is not the j lest- written, best-printed, most wide-ly-circulated and influential journal. { in the Southern Hemisphere, or that he himself is not in every way the ; most : brillianti'm6st witty, most experienced, most learned, and most potent individual that ever illumined the profession of journalism, is immer diately " gone for " in a style that .betrays either a dreadful dearth of " the sinews of war," or an extremely disordered and ill-regulated mind. The recent attacks on the County Chairman are cases in point, also the attack in Saturday's issue on some one who had said the Wanganui Herald has a good circulation in the township of Palmerston. Another illustration is found in the charge brought against the Foxton bailiff. We will briefly state the facts of the case. Mrs Burr, of Foxton, happens to owe the proprietor of the Palmerston Times some few pounds, and, like many other persons, is unable to pay the account. A summons is taken out, and judgment- given ex parte. The amount being unpaid a distress warrant is issued,' and returned marked "No effects." Still determined to have his " pound of flesh," Mr Dungan obtains a judgment summons, but owing to the bailiff being ill and confined to his house, the summons is not served, and by an oversight the Foxton Clerk of Court, in returning it for enlargement, omits to remark why enlargement is necessary. Mr Dungan at once reports the matter to the Magistrate, and demands an enquiry into the conduct of the Bailiff. Meantime Mr Baker writes to the Clerk of Court at Palmerston, stating the judgment summons was not served because the bailiff was ill. This explanation Mr Dungan coolly and cowardly ignores, and four or five days after Mr Baker had explained the reason of the delay in service, prostitutes his position as a journalist by using his own leading columns as a means of making a violent attack on the Foxton bailiff, simply because that functionary had not been able to obtain the few pounds owing to the writer of the article. We protest in the name of all that is fair and honorable against such a course. As to how Mr Dungan chooses to conduct his business we have nothing to do. If he has debtors on his books who do not pay up, he has a perfect right to sue them, and imprison them too, if he can. If a public official, whose duty it is to assist Mr Dungan in obtaining money owing to him, neglects that duty, the aggrieved person can lay his charge before a superior officer, and have it investigated. But after having laid a charge, to follow it up by a bitter attack in his own paper, based entirely on the assumption that Mr Tansley was guilty, well knowing he was prohibited from replying, was not conduct of which any journalist who was entitled to rank as high in the profession as Mr Dungan imagines he doea would be guilty. A checkered and varied journalistic experience of 30 years' duration is not necessary to teach a man what any honest mind recognises, viz., that it is mean and cowardly to accuse a man of wrong, then deliberately suppress an explanation of his supposed neglect, and make a bitter attack on him before his defence is made, well knowing he has no chance of reply. We have every confidence that Mr Tansley will be acquitted of the charges brought against him, and the public will then in all probability see in the columns of the Palmerston Times another attack on Mr Ward, as a punishment for his inability to see " eye to eye " with Mr Dungan. There can be little doubt that had the plaintiff in the case been any one else besides the proprietor of the Palmerston Times, the Editor of that journal would not have launched out in the way he did against the Bailiff.