EDITING MADE EASY.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 103, 31 December 1879, Page 2

EDITING MADE EASY.

We once heard of the proprietor of an English provincial paper — whose leaders we/c wi'itten from town — getting out of a dilemma m a most ingenious manner. The copy had not come to hand, and the paper could not b« published without a 'leading article, so he ripped outa column oil tijn' sjroa t Thunderer, set it nt big typo, find at. the commencement . ip.^eptp \-~-" We wonder what on oarth The Tim 3<s % mean*' by all this." " It strikes 113 very strongly that the jnvenile gontlpmiiri. who by courtesy, is dubbed editor of phe Ftildin-q Guardian must hav-e reail that anecdote ero^ he join art the ranks of. journalism, and took -it into, hi 5 ) cOncqrn as a good stock-in-trade/ Pai* be it from us to find fault 'wilh the m-viner m which he elects to fill his editorial -columns,. and hi|dhe adhered to.his hitherto invariable practice of dev^otinj? it to wholesome extract or episto'atory matter, he m'i^ht; ha«re pursiiod the even tenor of his way rejoicing m -lce'eping his small store' of originality intact. Unfortunately for him, however, Parliament is out o£ Session, and thero wer« no more 4lcts" to •"I'opi^ocldoe ,; tho Wellinir^n papers were not published daring the ltolidays, and tho proyinaial editor c)oul(l not be imitnted ; so the scissors was a (fain brought into re4i\isiti'on, aiid Ho/fdl back upon the colvesp.pndf.nc3 yof a 'W-JUKjiii'ii. pan'ol* as a forlorn hope, and treated his readers !o a letter wiiieh liad graced tho Hc.ralcL's' columns „ a : week pre.virmslyr. ■■"Bfad the '" editor" ' (•onti'nted tiivn^elE with alone publishing the letter— which was a : remarkably well-wrihten one — no one "would have felt inclined to challenge it, but lileo hi 3 provincial prototype;' ho wished to throw the people ofE the scent, so he put on a spurt, and this is the sum total of his nr-ntal .effort: — Thero appears to ha a atron^ desire m ccr> tftin ,qti«rtei"9 to mnito aome «»pitnl onk oF l^te arson enso, w'nic'i oi^mo bofbrotho Tt.iVf. "Court soTf»o wrok or; two sihefi. The fftots of-iho o'.ise ha'TO been grossly rn^BreprG^en^^J:l; and oar wottlpy Kesitlent MngUtTate h<»a been attacked m. a mosfc. cowtirdly manner tqi d^ling'with the mutter consciontiqusjy,

as judgment was m strict accordance with the evidence adduced m the enquiry. The true facts o£*the ease are contained m the following letter, which appeared m the Wanganui Hei'ald oiteat week. ..It puts the matter m a plain and straightforward manner, and those who peruse will see at a glace the justice 6( Mr. Ward's decision. Were our contemporary's courage upon a par witlrhis desire to attack us, lie would hare said openly what ia now conveyed by inuendo, and the "certain quarters " would be very adjacent to the latitude and longitude of our printoffice. Tlie " leader writer " above quoted states that the facts of the case have been "grossly misrepresented," and we are only too willing to admit the truth of the assertion, as no one. cjmld speak with such authority upon the point as the reporter himself. Perhaps this will explain- -the reason why the representative of the Feilding 2^aper, although present during. '.the whole of the hearing, and listening to the extraordinary reason assigned by the Magistrate for the dismissal, most studiously avoided making it public tl? rough, its columns. Even supposing that he was xinable to reproduce it, as did the two other reporters, ; ivhen delivered viva vooe, the document could ; have been easily obtained from Mr. Wari?, who before delivering: it had transferred it to paper. Under these circumstances," then, it was quite patent that the grounds upon which the case was dismissed were- of such a nature as was deemed not police to be made known, and were wilfully suppressed by him who has now the pool effrontery to insinuate that others grossly misrepresented the c;ase... life fearlessly dW •our duty in -drawing attention -to what we then and still consider to have been a want of moral courage upor. the part of an official who should be ajbove fear or favor; and having done so we were quite content to let the matter rest there, leaving it to the proper authorities t® deal with. ' For the contents of any letters whjch have appeared m our columns we are;by no means responsible, but we may state that so actuated we*e we by a>desir.o..j;Q deal fairly by both Mr. Ward and *Mr. Halcombe, that we point-blank refused to publish- three; -lettors because the writers would not sign their riaaie^ to the documents, and only inserted [correspondence 'upon the njatter bearing .the writers' signatures". ' Perhaps if tlie 'epistle graced with the yiom, de glume of " Justitia " — which ' does' duty for a, leader m our con tern poraty-r had been signed by tlie writer, it mighj; confirm our suspicions as to its author, and" account |or the remarkable 'knowledge 1 the writer has of tho facts of the ease. As our young contemporary is s6 fond of extracts; aud quotations, we wi|l treat 'him to one from a writer who studied every phase of 'human nature. If his readings have embraced the "Moor of Venice," he will remember the Duke's admonition to Bhabantio, m which "he says : To mourn a mischief that is past'and gone Is the next way to draw new mischief on. We very much question if the object of his injudicious zeal will be at aU:thankfid for the 'interference, and we would wish him a belter champion. "As it is, we pity a ward plaired-at the misguided mercy of such a (fiutrdian* And now one word m conclusion with regard to i tho subject matter oil tlie letter about. ..which so much , fuss has been made* Our sapient contemporary appears to forget thi)t while the charge heard was on« of arson, the author of tho famous correspondence has studiously eschewed the slightest reference to that fact. Had Mr. Wabd been called upon to adjudicate upon the question' oE title, then the argument's used m the letter would have some bearing upon the case. Such; ho;\vejor, was not so. A criminal action was brought, and the issue for the "\£a.Ki s *n' at6 to try was was whether a building had been accitientallyor wilfully sefi on fire. There was abundant evidence to prove that it was tho very * reverse oE accidental, and .therefore m presuming to account for the motives' by Ayhich Mr Halcoiibk " was swayed, he nob only exceeded his powers m dealing with what was not be-Fore tho Court,' bnt m admitting the question of supposed title upon the pirt oE tho offender to be a palliation, Mr. Waud contemned tho verdict of a jury whiciihad decided that point. Had the course of justice been taken, as m Mr, SnelsonJs case we would have been the first to advocate the entering of. a nolle prosequij for from circumstances within our own knowledge we are fully convinced the rash act was commit fed without premeditation ancl without the slightest idea that an illegal, act was being committed. As svo have saM before, we discharged our duty m e ; nh?ring our protest against what v/e d»- i eaiod si glaring partiality m the administration of justice, and having dona so wo did not again wish to revert to tho lhatter. We cannot however, allow our Feildiii'jf -contemporary m his irtjijiluMoiTs i»flk>rts to whitewash a very foolish bluntje" — calling it by the very mildest nara.3— to h.iu'l reproaches at those who perf.orm.prl duties for which his youth and inexperuwo could soo nb necessity, ' or who exhibited a courago and canilor. it was impossible for him to appreciate.