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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5495, 6 November 1878, Page 2

The nuaidcu effort of Sir George Grey’s new Press Agency has been certainly characteristic, if not happy. Something which purported to be a report of tho proceedings of the free conference between the Legislative Council aud the House of Representative upon the Electoral Bill, was telegraphed by the new a"ency to tbe throe journals, the Auckland Herald, tho Lyttelton Times, aud the Okujo Daily Times, whose services in tho cause of “ Greyism” have earned an unathorlsed concession of a telegraphic monopoly valued by Dr. Lemon at more than £3OOO a year. This report appears to have not unnaturally raised the ire of those honorable gentlemen of the Legislative Council who were managers in the conference on behalf of the Upper House, and notice was taken of tho fact in the manner following:—“Before proceeding to the business of tho day, tho Hon. Mr. Waterhouse desired to call the attention of the Council to a report in the Lyttelton Times of proceedings) at the late conference. The report generally misrepresented ‘the proceedings, and it gave jocular aud iuterjeetional remarks as part of the serious debate. It was very much to bo regretted.that anysperaon attending that conference, either as a manager or as a member of the 'Legislature, should have so far' forgot himself. They should remember that they were gentlemen first "anil partisans afterwards, The;~rpport was altogether incorrect. Tho Hons. Messrs. Holmes, Hall, and George Buckley followed’in the- same djrectipu, all_ characterising tho report as unfair and ono-sidod.—Tho Hon. Colonel Whitmore desired to inform tho Council that neither ho nor his colleagues had anything to do with the report in question. (Hear, hear.) Ho thought, however, that tho principal fault'of the report’Was_ its meagre, ness. He referred to a sentence iu the report which said that a member of tho Ministry had threatened that tho House would find it necessary to review the constitution ot tho Council. He (Colonel Whitmore) was sure that none of his colleagues could have used such language. —An Hon. ‘ Member : It was used.—The matter then dropped.” This is exactly tho kind of danger which is to bo feared from placing what wo called “ the intelligence department” of tho Colony iu tho hands, or under tho control, of the Government. If the telegrams wore the most colorless and faithful relieution of the passing events of tho hour, aud if the public virtue of tho Government were Utopian iu its character, neither the one nor tho other would escape suspicion, or command perfect confidence. But lest there

should bo any lingering hope of fairness to the pubHc or impartiality to opponents, as some acknowledgment of the liberal concession made at the general charge, or lest there should be any doubt as to its end and object, the Government have shown their colors at the start. The quotation wo have made from the newspaper report gives but a weak impression of the indignation expressed in the, Legislative Council. When the Hansard of the day is published wo shall recur to this subject, and from what has been done in the green tree the people may judge of what will be done in the dry.