THE MELBOURNE ARGUS AND THE VICTORIAN SECRETARY.

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 436, 20 September 1877, Page 4

THE MELBOURNE ARGUS AND THE VICTORIAN SECRETARY.

Mr. Berry, the Chief Secretary of Victoria, has taken offence at the outspoken criticisms of the Argus, which he chooses to characterise as "libellous remarks," and in his place in Parliament spoke of inviting the House "to take effectual measures to repress the Argus." The Argus in noticing this says :—" The Chief Secretary is not complaining—no sensible man ever has—of our Parliamentary reports, and it must be our comments, therefore, that he threatens to repress. He will be a rasher man than we imagine even Mr. Berry to be if he ventures ut on any step of the kind. Despite the Ministerial majority, Victoria is not ripe for any press-gag law. And as to the authority of the House, the Argus would be no more inclined to submit to any tyrannical exercise of privilege in the future than it was in the past. Other Premiers, with their heads turned by a majority, have endeavoured to repress the Argus, and the public is aware how far they succeeded. A majority is a formidable weapon no doubt, but one of the things which it is utterly powerless to do is to check or influence the comments of this journal. It cannot prevent our exposing the incapacity of this or any Ministry when that incapacity threatens evil to the country, nor our condemning the conduct of any member when by his rowdyism he disgraces the House, and of expressing that condemnation at our own time and in our own manner. If we exceed the bounds, we are answerable to a legal tribunal. To the House we are not responsible in any way whatever, and we may tell Mr. Berry at once that we propose never to do the House any injustice, and never to spare one necessary remark or allusion. The House will be told the plain truth in plain words. Threats are idle. But it is well to put on record the fact that, in continental fashion, the Argus has been ' warned.' "