The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5371, 14 June 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 1878.

Our contemporary the Canterbury “Press” has adopted the course which we have taken of late for the benefit of our subscribers, that of publishing gratuitously the Government advertisements which the present Government desire to publish only in their own journal, and in newspapers which support them politically. On the 10th instant the following notice appeared in our contemporary above the leading article :

The directors of the Press Newspaper Company have the honor to lay before their subscribers and the public generally tlie following facts The Government had been in the habit of inserting public notifications in both the monring newspapers published in Christchurch until 17th April last. Since that date no o *ders for advertising have been given to the Press newspaper from the Colonial Secretary’s office or the Public Works Department in Wellington, whilst such notices have regularly and to a large extent been advertised in the Lyttelton Times. In consequence of this change,the divectorsof thePrrsaCompany deemed It advisable to make inquiries at headquarters, and one of them visited Wellington for that purpose, and had interviews with the Government on the subject generally. It was ascertained that it was the intention of the Government that in future such advertisements would be given only to the Lyttelton Times and the Timaru Herald in Canterbury. It was represented to the Government that so partial a distribution of Government advertising would not only place the excluded journals at a disadvantage, but would also be injurious to the public interest, as tending to lessen the publicity given to the advertisements in question. The Government stated that economy In advertising was necessary, and that, other things being equal, it would not be surprising if they gave their advertisements to their own supporters. The directors of the Press Company, perceiving that the absence of Government notices in the Press will place the subscribers to that journal, at a disadvantage, have determined to publish without charge all Government notices appearing In the Lyttelton Times, but withheld from the Press. Their subscribers and the Government will, therefore, obtain a.gratuitous .advantage so long as the present system continues. In making this pecuniary sacrifice, the directors of the Press Company feel that they will have public sympathy, and that public opinion will justify their present action in residing any attempt on the part of the Government to use Government advertising as a means of seeming political support.

It is obvious that papers which occupy a leading position must, in;self-defenoe,give their readers the benefit of such important information as is conveyed in Government advertisements. The result therefore, under the present regime, is that Government advertisements will appear in all the leading papers, while only those will be paid for them who are friends of the Government. Never, in the history of the colony,has more deliberate jobbing been perpetrated ; and it is the more remarkable that this should happen at the very time when members of the Government have themselves embarked in newspaper speculation, reckoning apparently that they can assist, by manipulating the Government patronage, to make their speculation profitable. These papers receive atpresent a subsidy from the Government on the condition of supporting their views and of defending their patrons. There is one comfort to be derived from such a discreditable policy; while a few newspapers may accept the fee with the cynical reflection “non olot,” wo feel confident that the more respectable portion of the Press will, independently of political feeling, repudiate with disgust the new Government principle, that when ever it pleases them to suppose that “other things are equal,” it would bo right to give their advertisements to their own supporters. This is the American principle, which has done more to corrupt American politics than anything else, and which leads to the incessant growth of the crowd of political hangers-on who await every change of Government with a hope of good things to come. We congratulate Sir George Grey on this manifestation of his astuteness when embarking in the printing business. To assist his own newspaper, and at the same time to follow so closely in the footsteps of the Great Republic, must bo to him a double gratification. It was a constant complaint among some of the friends of the late Government that they did not consider them sufficiently. And the late change of Government has been, to a certain extent, attributed to too great anxiety on the part of the late Ministers to bo quite even-handed in the distribution of Government patronage. In the matter of newspaper advertising and printing they did not • economise by giving their friends a monopoly, but opened the advertising to tender when only one newspaper was .to be employed as a vehicle for giving publicity to Government notices. But the groat “ political awakening” has come, and we have changed all that; the “Pious Editor’s Creed ” is now in the ascendant: — I da believe with all my soul In the great Press's freedom, To pint the people to the goal. An’ In the traces load ’em j Palsied the arm that forges yokes , At my fat contracts squintin’, And withered he the nose that pokes Inter the Oov'mcnt printin' ! It is generally not tile purest order of mind which is full of mean suspicions; and no • one who listened to the present Premier as, night after night, when in opposition, he cast the foulest aspersions upon honorable men, could help suspecting that such accusations originated from a consciousness that if in power he himself would do what he wrongly accused his opponents of doing. Now we know what the Government views of political morality are. Wo have lately been scan-

dalised by the fact that a prosecution ordered by the Legislature should have been made a means of finding exorbitant fees, at the public cost, for Messrs. Rees and Hislop, the lawyers employed for the defence. The whole history of the connection of these gentlemen with the case will yet be matter for Parliamentary inquiry. We have seen a well-to-do man allowed to leave the colony, and a nolle prosequi entered in his case by order of the Government, when he lay under a charge of the most cowardly and cruel wrong that could bo done to a poor servant girl. Wo witness daily the most wanton extravagance in the use of steam yachts and special trains to minister to the comfort of men who used to scream from the Opposition benches in factitious horror at the very modest travelling expenses of their predecessors. Wehaveseen constitutional principles outraged, and an attempt made by the Premier surreptitiously to set aside the decision of Parliament; and, what is worst of all, we see that a large proportion of the public is in a cynical mood, and has hitherto looked on at theso proceedings halfapproving, half-assenting. But no one supposes that this frame of mind will last among Englishmen when they realise the fact that they are being imposed upon ; or that they will long accept as an excuse for the jobber, the phrase “I guess he’s a “ smart man.” The “ smart man ” holds with the expounder of the creed already quoted — “ That nothing aint extravagant Providing I’m in office." There is one consideration which must press itself on those of our contemporaries who are at present favored by Government patronage. Hitherto every paper in the colony, whether supporting the Government ot tho day or not, could do Government work, _ such as advertising, without the slightest embarrassment or loss of self-respect. The work done, or the amount of payment received, had nothing to do with any question of services rendered. Hereafter, if tho new Government principle holds good, the public will view with suspicion the opinions promulgated in any paper that publishes Government advertisements without the words “ Gratis ” printed over them. The glance of tho reader will inevitably be directed from tho leader to tho advertisement columns, and he will not weigh tho arguments, but will measure with his eye the length of the “ consideration.” We shall not be surprised if the Government nro unwillingly compelled by the most respectable of their own supporters among tho journals of the colony to “ make a strategical movement “to the rear ” in tho matter of advertisements.