New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, JULY 1, 1875.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4456, 1 July 1875, Page 2

New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, JULY 1, 1875.

Thb manufacture of canards appears to have been brought to great perfection in New Zealand. Those who are engaged in this very questionable kind of colonial industry generally set ” afloat’ a -.vague rumor affecting some public man to whom they are opposed, or whose detraction, they imagine, will render their fiction attractive to a considerable number of persons. The rumor is then carefully telegraphed to newspapers published at a distance, surrounded by more or less of details, giving it an appearance of probability. Having once got it published, it is then repeated, in more precise terms by telegraph to other newspapers, on the authority of the* special correspondent of the journal in which it originally appeared. This is the second stage of its existence. The third stage is usually in Australia, a section of the Melbourne Press being only too happy to find anything that may be twisted to the detriment of this colony. The worthless floating rumor of New Zealand gossip is there served up in a more finished form. It assumes the appearance of a well authenticated fact. In course of post, the Melbourne, paper containing the Australian version of the canard is received in New Zealand, and the paragraph is seized upon as something new and startling by news telegraphists, and sent broadcast over the colony. We have anotable exampleof thiskindof thing in the Hokitika telegram from the Melbourne Aye, which’ appears in another column. It afiects very materially indeed the honor of the Premier of this colony, and the bona Jides of the loan negotiation. Need we say that there is no truth whatever in the statement in the Age of the 20th ultimo, that Sir Julius Vogel had resigned his position and accepted an appointment as a financial agent for Messrs. Rothschilds. His colleagues have heard from him so recently 4 that we are warranted in saying, as a matter of fact, that there can be no foundation for the rumor. We say this to put the matter beyond possibility of doubt, because we perceive that an attempt has been made to countenance it in Wellington. We do not complain that the telegram in question has been published. On the contrary, it is better that the old story, in its now dress, should meet prompt denial. In truth, we have in this paragraph from the Age, the rumor that appeared some time ago in a section of the New Zealand Press. It is New Zealand manufacture, polished in Melbourne, by a newspaper which has seldom or never had a good word for Sir Julius Vogel, and which never misses a chance of decrying this colony. It has been our frequent duty to take the Aye to task for reckless misstatements affecting the credit and policy of New Zealand ; and we regret that partisan feeling should run so high here as to afford a pretext to its conductors to continue their attacks. The statement in question is dishonoring to this colony. The character of its public men is public property, and whatever affects them injuriously affects the community at large. We trust that

we shall not again have occasion to refer to this unpleasant subject. The rumor originated in the colony, it travelled beyond it, and it is now reproduced in a more offensive shape.