The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5484, 24 October 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1878.

The Press and the people of New Zealand are indebted to Mr, George IVTc/Lean* for having exposed and frustrated a most audacious attempt on the part of the Government to muzzle the independent newspapers of tho Colony, with a view to the establishment of that personal government which Sir George Grey foolishly believes ho can roimpose upon men who have enjoyed for a quarter of a century the privileges of constitutional freedom, with Ministerial responsibility in the conduct of public affairs. There has been, as wo have said, a scheme on foot for many months to establish a Goyernmont Press Agency, aud to overthrow or crush that one which already exists, and which, although not under the control of Ministers, has on the whole fairly, and impartially both to the Government and tho people, collected and transmitted items of news, political and social, and the narrative of daily occurrences throughout the Colony. We shall have occasion at a future time to trace out and describe this deeply laid arfd dangerous plot in all its details ; it is sufficient now to know that it has been prematurely exploded, and that the great Engineer has been “ hoist by his own petard.” It was a conspiracy against the freedom of the Press, and has evoked shouts of indignant denunciation from all parts of the Colony to which the news had reached yesterday. After the Tapanui job, and the Bay of Islands scandal, and the attempt to swamp the European electors in all the electoral districts in the North Island by Maori votes, we ought not to be surprised at any coup which Sir Georoe Grey’s Government might attempt in order to secure the establishment of “personalgovernment. It would seem, indeed, as if the Premier and his colleagues had been struck with judicial blindness, and wero wrecking themselves politically in a pre-ordained course. On no rational ground can their extraordinary aberrations be accounted for. They appear, however, to have been thoroughly scared on this occasion, and to have “ dropped it” witli pantomimic quickness. Wo publish in another column a copy of the correspondence which passed yesterday between Messrs. Holt and McCarthy and the General Manager of tho Telegraphic Department, to which we invite attention. They are to have a special wire. The proposal was not long under consideration, for within a couple of hours, we learn, of the time when their letter was despatched the remarkable reply of Dr. Lemon was received by Messrs. How and McCarthy. Tho disclosure which this reply makes is very curious. We have not yet been able to see or to obtain a copy of tho papers which wore “ dragged out” of the Hon. Telegraph Commissioner, but wo gather that when the proposals of the conspirators were submitted to the General Manager, his report was anything but favorable. Their offer for the wire was £1725 a year. Wo take from our contemporary the “Evening Post” an extract from Dr. Lemon’s memorandum, which is as follows : “The cost of a special wire from Inver- “ cargill to Auckland, calling in at Dune- “ din, Oamaru, Timaru, Christchurch, «• Blenheim, Wellington, and Napier, “ would be £4OOB per annum. This in- “ eludes £320 interest on capital, and “ £528 maintenance of line for the whole “ 1175 miles. The operators would cost “ £3160. It would take 15 operators to “do the work, aud the charge of 3s. per “ hour, including gas and fuel, is not ex- “ cessive. Tho service of each individual “operator for 27 hours in the week “ would be £4 Is. If Grahamstown was “ opened, the amount for a year would “ be £2lO 12s. If Timaru and Oamaru “ are left out, that amount would be de- “ ducted. I have not taken the Bluff ‘ ’ into calculation, as that station s ser- “ vices would only be required four nights “ in tho month. This should be given “ iii. If tho compositors of papers ro- “ quire more than one copy dropped at “any station, Bs. per night for every “ copy to be charged. I don’t think we “ can offer to do it any cheaper than this, “ taking it this way. Supposing we say “eight papers take this news, and we “ average in sending 1000 words per “hour, that would be 27,000 words to “ each paper every week; this multiplied “ by eight would give 216,000 words per , “ week, which, at a cost of 10s. per 1000 “ words—the present tariff rates amount “to £IOB, and for the year would “ amount, at tariff rates, to £slOl, as “ against £4ooß—taking the time served “by the department to this special wire “ at one-fifth of the fourteen hours.” Tho setting up and maintenance of this wire, as Dr. Lemon showed, would cost tho colony £4OOB a year, and its earnings at the ordinary Press charges would bo more than £SOOO a year, yet a liberal Government proposed to endow its friends with this monopoly for £2OOO a year only. It is remarkable that, like the Tapanui job, this job was perpetrated whilst the General Assembly was in session, and, as in tho other case, tho arrangement was kept secret until it was dragged out and exposed in the House by Mr, McLean. The present Government is not as other* Governments. It has a “ mission,” and may touch that by which its predecessors would have been defiled. Tho land jobber; according to their published creed, is a public enemy; two prominent members of the Ministry aro advertised directors of a public company, one of whoso declared objects is “acquiring lauded property, “ situated in or near cities, or towns, or “ centres of population i a tko colony of “New Zealand, and thereafter selling “ it again in whole or in, lots to “ suit purchasers.” Dealing with native lands on the part of officials, being declared to be highly criminal, “ blocks” at Hokianga, Wai- ; maaa, Wfaakataae, and elaowhoro tell

their tale of Ministerial consistency. Mr. MacandreW breathes an Imperial desire to bo able to do “fifty” Tapanui jobs ; and the Premier himself might conclude one of his “beautiful,” speeches about liberty with a quotation from Phil Fudge's letter to his brother Tim;— , . God knows I love to ev'n excess, _ . The sacred freedom of the-Press, . My only aim's to—crush the writers. -