The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1879.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5579, 14 February 1879, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1879.

We reprint to-day from the Minister’s paper a number of Government advertisements, on our usual terms’ viz., nothing per inch, labor, type, ink, space, and paper included. In adopting this system we have felt that, whilst we were rendering a service to the Government and the people by giving additional publicity to the wants of the several departments, especially those of the Public Works Department, we were, at the same time, discharging a duty to our own subscribers and friends who have a right to expect that wo should keep them informed upon subjects which have always a general interest, as showing the progress of the railway works, as well as the channels in which the public money was running away, and which might also have a particular interest for some amongst them as possible tenderers for construction, or for supplies of various kinds. Although not wholly disinterested, therefore, we have some reason to complain that our voluntary and gratuitous service to the Government in this, as in so many other respects, has not met with the recognition and acknowledgment which, in our estimation, it deserved. Whilst generally anxious, as supporters of constituted authority, to guide and keep Ministers in the right way, our faith in them as a body is not robust, and we have not been able, like our contemporary the “Lyttelton Times” on a recent occasion—to display that perfect party devotion which consists in supporting them, as in Tapanui or Grahamstown jobs, when we knew them to be in the wrong. In August last the subject of Government advertisements was brought under notice of the House of Representatives, on a motion of the honorable member for Wanganui, Mr. Pox ; a very warm debate ensued, in which, on the Ministerial side, some very strong language, always the sign of a bad cause, was used, especially by the Premier. In his speech, Mr. Pox described the action of a previous Government in the matter of advertisements thus:—“There seemed to be too much “ reason to suppose that the Government “ had determined to depart from the “ practice that had hitherto existed in “ the colony, which had been to share “ as equally as possible the Government “ patronage in this respect, and to adver- “ tise in such a way as might be most “ beneficial to the public service, and not “ at all with any view to the question as “ to whether the papers were supporters “of the Government or otherwise. That “ practice was carried out by the late Go- “ vernment, and it was their custom —he “did not know how long it had existed ‘ ‘ —to call for tenders for the insertion “of Government advertisements just as “ they invited tenders for railway works, “ for rations, or any other public supply; “ and thus all the printers in the colony “and all journals had the business thrown “ open to them. Substantially, the ad- “ vertisements were given to the lowest ‘ ‘ tenderer, though, of course, allowances “ were made, when there were competing “ tenders, for such circumstances as a ‘‘ palpably larger circulation, or the dif- “ ference between a morning and evening “ contemporary, or some matter of the ‘ ‘ kind which the Government were quite “ justified in considering in distributing “ their patronage, because the Govern- “ ment ought to do so to get the best “ possible service at the least possible “ price. Such a system of tendering was “ calculated to have that result if carried t. ‘ out impartially and fair-play were given k j. o all the newspapers in tho country.” ay of contrast, the hon. member for Waikou Mr. George MuLeax, gave the folio sketch of a somewhat different . cour3e pursued by a more “liberal” .Government: —“Now he “ would come to the Government of the “ present day. '7** l n ' Qaenfc Government “ advertised for tenors, and, the Guar- “ dian ’ proprietors having purchased the “‘Times,’ tlhose nev vs P a P er3 becalM “one; but another newspaper had

“started, called the ‘ Morning Herald.’ “ The ‘Times ’ tendered at 4s. per inch, “ and the ‘Morning Herald,’he believed, “ tendered at Is. per inch, and from the “ knowledge he possessed he believed the “ ‘Herald’ was approaching nearly “ double the circulation of the ‘ Times ’ “at the time that journal was gazetted. “But what did the Government do? “ They accepted the tender of the “ ‘ Times ’ at 4sr per inch, instead of the “ tender of the ‘ Herald ’ at Is. per “inch; and the ‘ Evening Star,’which “ ho supposed had the largest circulation “ of any evening paper in the Colony, “ was shut out altogether. It was for “the House to say whether it was right “ for the Government to give 4s. per inch “ when they could get it done for Is. per “ inch and be better served. He might “ point out another advertisement, —the “ railway time-table, which appeared for “twelve months in the ‘ Guardian ’ for “ £BO per annum, and which appeared in “ the ‘Times ’at the same rate. It was “ to be published daily, and when he was “ in office he had no power to stop this “ advertisement until this contract was “ completed. What did they find now ? “ The ‘Times’ still got the same adver- “ tisement; it was published at such times “ as suited the convenience of the news- “ paper, and the charge was £l2O a year.” In defence the Hon. Attorney-General, Mr. Stout, expressed the willingness of Ministers to furnish the returns desired, as they would give information which would clear away a good deal of misconception ; he then gave the following proof of the spirit of impartiality in which favors, in the shape of advertisements, were distributed :—“lt was said that the “Government had withdrawn all adver- “ tisements from the Opposition paper, “ but such was not the case. Had they “decided to do that, the land transfer “advertisements would not have been “sent to the Hew Zealand Times. They “were still published in that paper, “while the “Hew Zealander” did not “ get one.” Rarely, of late, except at our own coat and charges, have wo had the honor of placing the Lion and Unicorn at the head of an advertisement in our- columns, but it is true that we have occasionally been favored with a land transfer notice for publication. What we have now to record is that even this dole of departmental charity has been taken away, to be bestowed, we may admit, on a more deserving object. Seeing a particular form of advertisement in the columns of a contemporary in which it was not usual to find it, a gentleman from our establishment called at the office of the RegistrarGeneral to request the usual authority to copy it; this was refused, and ho was courteously informed that about the beginning of the current month the “ Registrar-General had given “ orders that the land transfer notices “ were to appear in only one paper—the “ ‘Hew Zealander.’” The natural affection of Ministers for their literary offspring appears thus to increase with its age, and favois are being heaped upon it now, at the cost of the public, with a profusion and au exclusiveness which are quite touching.. In the old days of the “ continuous” extravagance which Mr. Fox described, it was usual to order and to pay for the insertion of advertisements on certain fixed days only, with shorter or longer intervals as circumstances appeared to require ; but we have had the satisfaction of finding the same string of advertisements every day for several consecutive weeks in the columns of the Ministers’ paper, and now, as we see, our one ewe lamb, the “ land transfer notice,” is taken from us and added to the fatal heap of favors with which that fortunate journal is already overwhelmed by a paternal Government, There may be some urgent need, of which we are ignorant, that all these advertisements should appear every day in the Ministers’ paper; but if the charge of four shillings per inch be maintained, the cost to the public must be very considerable; there are no doubt corresponding advantages for “ the men, and the women, and the little children ” of the people which we cannot at present discover. We shall know more about them when Parliament meets.