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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5363, 5 June 1878, Page 2

A controversy is now being carried on here, which is but the echo of a blast already blown in Dunedin. The object apparently is to discredit the Press Agency by accusing the managers of being biased by political party considerations, : and of not being impartial. Into the merits of the Taranaki case wo shall not enter at present. The question will no doubt come up again when the Assembly meets, and, when all the circumstances have been disclosed the public will have another : opportunity of learning how official intelligence is got up in these latter days. . They will also have the opportunity of deciding whether or not :there would be a greater chance of their obtaining plain and uucolored statements of facts, and reliable general news through the Press Agency as at present conducted than if the agency- were' placed in the hands, or under the control, of the present Government or its followers; this is really what is being now again attempted. We. have jealously watched the proceedings of the Press Agency since its establishment here, and, all things considered, we are bound frankly to say that there has been no reasonable ground for complaint upon either of the heads under which complaint now is made. It has chanced to come within our knowledge on many occasions that, in communications received from their numerous correspondents, the managers here have been at pains, whilst adhering strictly to accurate statements of facts, to tone down or modify expressions which might be objected to, on either side, .as being politically, offensive. If the: managers of the Press Agency were to publish, as hews, all the telegrams they receive from various quarters, in the style andprecise language of their correspondents the results would often be a jumble, absurd, or unintelligible. The duty of the managers is to collate and to arrange the material furnished to them; and if that be done fairly and inoffensively, with strict regard to truth and a, careful avoidance of partizanship, the highest praise is due to, and, as we think, lias heretofore been: fairly earned, by Messrs. Holt and McCarthy. If this view of the duties of the Press Agency be, as we think it is, a correct one, it follows that the words of communications made to them must necessarily often be-altered before the intelligence intended to bo conveyed can be put into suitable form; but the doing of this in a particular instance is made the ground of a charge of general unfairness against the Agency. ' We’ give the telegram about which the present disturbance is made, as said to have been' sent, ■ and as the information it contained was published:—

Be the attempt to pull The attempt to pull down the triumphal arch, down the triumphal arch .—[ t was a midnight freak was a midnight freak of a of a few, but It is but few larrikins, and it Is but right to state that neither right to state that the Major Atkinson nor his report that the Major and friends were connected' his friends were concerned with it in any way. it in it is absolutely unwas a stupid affair, and true, those engaged are now, no doubt, sorry they took part in it. These two forms must be read in connection with what had gone ; before. Sir Geohoe Grey had landed at Taranaki, and there were the usual “triumphal arch,” and the banners and streamers; and there were the usual meeting and banquet, and the usual allowance of what a distinguished Now Zealand statesman loved to call “rot and bosh.” In the night, it appeared that some persons were disposed to spoil the arch, and this was the story, in consequence, that was telegraphed to our contemporary, the “ Evening Post,” and to the whole human race in Now Zealand next morning:— ‘ ‘ The arch was the scene of an exciting “ incident last night, when Major Atkin- “ son’s brother, Mr. Decimos Atkinson, “ led a party to cut it down at midnight. “ ... The names of the principals “in the affair are . . . AH were “ allowed off [by the police] on condition “ that they would turn up at 8 o’clock in “the morning, but none have since “ shown themselves out of their houses, “Major Atkinson himself being also “ apparently in hiding, as he has hot “turned tip to-day ! anywhere. .Great “indignation, &c., &o.” Now the facts of the case,'as will be seen by-and-bye, were nut as stated. Major Atkinson was not, even “ apparently,”’' in hiding, and; his, “ friends” had had nothing whatever to do with the foolish midnight demonstration of the “ few.”, Under these circumstances, if the Press Agency, having cognizance of the facts, and that the statements made were “ absolutely untrue,” had failed to give that intimation to the public, the managers would, we think,' have been wanting in the conscientious discharge of their duty to the public, and been liable to-the gravest censure for such failure. They were in no way bound to use the words of their agent in so doing..