PROSPECTUS OF THE "OAMARU TIMES AND WAITAKI REPORTER."

North Otago Times, Volume 1, Issue 1, 25 February 1864, Page 4

PROSPECTUS OF THE "OAMARU TIMES AND WAITAKI REPORTER."

The "Oamaru Times an© Waitaki Reporter," will be a full-sized Weekly Newspaper, and the first number will be published on the 25th February, 1864. The Proprietors have completed arrangements which will enable them to present its readers with the current news of the week— District, Provincial, and Colonial — together with every other class of information in the most acceptable and reliable form. They, therefore, with some degree of confidence, submit the claims of their paper to the public, as one which will fill up the vacancy so long and sensibly felt by the inhabitants of Oamaru, Waitaki, and surrounding districts. The Public Press is now one of the recognised levers to all social, commercial, and political advancement, amd is absolutely essential to the progress of any community. Hitherto, the claims of the important districts of Oamaru, Waitaki, and neighborhoods, have been anything but advocated— their interests anything but protected — by Journals now deriving considerable revenues from them; in short, they have been ignored altogether by them. The necessity, therefore, of a Journal that will take its stand as the mouthpiece of the people — in their pastoral, agricultural, commercial, and social interests, ii respective of class or party — is absolute. To meet this want, the "Oamaru Times and Waitaki Reporter" is contemplated. The Proprietors, therefore, repudiate the idea of establishing a class newspape*. The " Oamaru Times and Waitaki Reporter" will be unshackled and uninfluenced by any section of the community ; unsectarian and catholic in principle — a journal, in short, which, while advocating "liberal" and "progressive" principles, Avill judiciously watch over and represent the interests of every section of the community. The material advancement of the district will be specially attended to. To watch over the disposal of Crown Lands and the administration of the public finances to the best interests of the people — to raise a loud voice against the expenditure of money upon ill -digested or useless schemes— will be duties which this Journal will conscientiously perform. Special attention will be given to the advocacy of harbour improvements, and telegraphic communication with' the capital of the Province, &c ; and when communication is once established, the proprietors pledge themselves to provide their readers with the latest intelligence. The management of Municipal affairs, the proceedings of the District School Boards, and Improvement Committees, will be subjects on which an enlightened criticism will be brought to bear in the columns of the " Oamaru Times and Waitaki Reporter." The proper administration of public affairs will also meet with due attention, and the revision of the political constitution of New Zealand, so far as is necessary thereto, will be advocated. The illiberality of the prtsent electoral franchise and registration acts, will be pointed out, and their reform steadily advocated. In short the object of the proprietors is, to make the "Oamaru Times and Waitaki Reporter" a Journal in character and description every way worthy of the district. And in order to carry out their project on the scale they have laid down, a large expenditure will be necessary, and, to insure its success, liberal support must be awarded. The proprietors, however, are persuaded that the public will appreciate their enterprise, and that, before the end of six months from the issue of their first number, the " Oamaru Times and Waitaki Reporter" will have become truly the peoples' newspaper.