A JOURNALISTIC FEAUD.

Manawatu Times, Volume V, Issue 164, 8 October 1881, Page 2

A JOURNALISTIC FEAUD.

There ai'e ppople who have the happy knack of— -to use a somewhat Tiilgar colorr.alißm — " always putting their foot in it," and the >T. of R., would seem to lie a unique specimen of the genrm. In his issue of Thursday his pent up feelings found vent in a sneer at the Manairatu biweeklies, backed up by a glorification of all daily papers in general, aud his own organ in particular. We will take the issue he ib so proad of and analyse its contents. The leader is composed of about fortj lines, ten being the product of the brain of the J. of R., and the remaining thirty, an accommodating extract ripped from the columns of the "Waipawa Mail." Amongst the telegraphic intelligence appaars quarter of a column, headed the <c The Oamaru Case,** which was wired to us as member* of the Press Association on Tuesday night, and for which we had to pay telegraphic rate«. This, ,with brazen effrontery appears in the columns of th,e muoh-lauded ('.'daily "'ai by telegraph, to make his readers believe it was " Special to. the 'Standard.* M Now, we We no hesitation in publicly ttating that it was filched ixom either eur columni

or some other member of the Association, and our proof of the statement is— First, " the other paper " does not belong to the Presa Association, pays nothing towards its support, receives nothing through its agents, aud the clipping out of Association news is nothing more nor less than a contemptible, petty pilfering of what it is too mean to pay for. Secondly — It stands to reason, that no agent, private or public, would wire " by telegraph" intelligence to a "daily " paper which had been received by a " bi-weekly forty-f'ght hours previously. We have carefully gone over the remainder of the telegraphic intelligence, and we find that while a considerable portion appeared in our Daily Supplement of the previous day, the balance was published oti the morning of the evening upon which our contemporary made its appearance. And this is the enterprising " daily " of which we hear so much. We are, however, not his only admirers, and from the columns of a Wellington contemporary we cull the following graceful compliment paid to the literary genius of the J. of E. :— We tliank the " Manawatu Standnrd " for filching onr " Scintillations " without acknowledgment. Scissors and paste don't wear away the brain. And still people say it is easy to edit a " daily," and refuse to believe in the enterprise of their projectors ! In answer to his piteous appeal, we promised to let the J. of R., alone, providing he made no attack, overt or covert, upon us ; but we warned him that for every line he penned about us, we should give him a score in return, and he shall have them like ladies' punch, " hot, strong, and sweet."