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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4212, 19 September 1874, Page 2

The following paragraph appears in tho New Zealand Herald of the 9th inst..:—-“At tho recent dinner given in Wellington by tho members of the Assembly to His . Excellency .Sir James Eergnsson; snobbishness was carried to a considerable length. It appears that notes were sent round to the three Wellington journals, kindly informing them that their representatives would be allowed to occupy the reporters’ -gallery while the ‘lions’ fed. The Evening Post, with that high spirit . which has always characterised- its management, indignantly resented tho insult offered, but the wouldbe Colonial representative journal—tho New Zealand Times suffered the indignity in silence, and acted according to orders. We are not told whether the Times representative was regaled in tho scullery ; very probably he was.” This paragraph is incorrect in every particular. If notes were sent round to the three Wellington journals,. informing them that their representatives would be°admitted to the reporters’ gallery,* no such note was ever received at this office. If it had been, it would at once have been consigned to the waste-basket, or returned to its author. A representative of this journal was invited to bo present at the dinner table, and tho invitation was by letter accepted. That done, the representatives of tho paper, for their ,own convenience, took tho seats which best suited them for correct reporting, but there was no person present from this or any other office in the reporters’ gallery. Tho invitation given was courteous, and the reply was prompt. No other invitation than that received would havo been accepted, and, so far from their having been any “indignity" or “ orders,” it was determined in this office to resent any indignity or any order contrary to custom and the proper position of representatives of the Press. So far as this journal was concerned, the courtesies were fully complied with by the Committee to whom the conduct of the banquet was entrusted, and, with the common consent of our reporters, they reported from tho Hansard gallery, in preference to the trouble of being present at the table, and of their “taking turns,” equally to tho confusion of themselves and of their brother guests. The ordinary and proper courtesy was literally and fully complied with by tho Banquet Committee, and for no other purpose than for professional convenience was the Hansard

gallery chosen as the situation from which notes could best bo taken. ' Indignity _ would have been involved by a reporter taking his seat in the gallery, and by' another representative of the paper ajjpearing at the dinnertable, but no such indignity was offered to our reporters. - Had it been, they would have been right in resenting it. The New Zealand Herald may, if it is generous enough, take it for granted that the New Zealand Tima knows the difference between courtesy and discourtesy, and that, if any discourtesy had on this occasion been shown, Sir James Fergusson or his hosts would simply have spoken to themselves, and—to dead walls.