THE NORTH OTAGO TIMES AND THE MAIL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 531, 14 January 1878, Page 2

THE NORTH OTAGO TIMES AND THE MAIL.

! As oiir renders are donbiloss awnro, the charge of appropriating our special messages pn-f-irod by ns against the Xot-th UfO'/o Times was placed in the hands of two gentlemen fi>v consideration, pin- - our local contemporary also publishes t!i' j se special telegrams : but they do not pay for the right to do so, nor do they pny fcelegraphie charges." The decision of the "two arbitrators in reference to the charge is as follows : . Oamaru, January 14. IS7S. Gentlemen, —After duly considering the matter referred to us in cniiivct ; on with the North Utio/o Times and Evemxi; Mail and hearing ovid nc-'. on the su'j «•(;,. we arc nf ojiinion that alHvugh in two or three instances the Korlh Vto.'jo Times had inserted telegrams copied fVin the Kvkxtxi; Mail,. stilfwo tliink it could hardly b:- affirmed that the Korlh Otwjo Tim's v.-as in the habit of copying its telegrams 'rom the Kveninu Matt./ It seems evident to us that although the KviiXixo Matt, has (on noticing the instances aliovo referred to) reason to complain, still had that paper carried its investigafinn a little further it would have refrained from criticism. It, appears that although a rovtion of the oriijinal cost of teh-grams received by the Slur is paid for only by the Matt., yet the Kori'h Outgo Times "pays for the transmission of telegrains copied from that paper by a Dunedin correspondent ;md r-.m therefore in only a modified sense be said not to pay for its tek-srams. Under these circumstances and | owing to the peculiar arrangements entered into °by both papers we should not bo justified in finding that eithf.r paper was altogether wrong in its statement, and think that the'l.s should be returned in! each case to the depositor, GrEOKfiR Sumpter. J J, Church, i The ultimatum is so wisely given that! we would indeed bo ungrateful were we [ not to express our unqualified approval; tiiereof. In bringing the charge ve were ! not. aetnatcjd bv nny d'sire lo fence with our contt-iupurarv. altlumgh we must coiir fess we we're a little annoyed that, after . incurring expense with the idea of gain-1 ing popularity for the Mail, another j should be able to participate in that j

poptilarity without the expense. In fair ness to our contemporary w« must statt that it has not been proven thai it is it the habit of using our " Specials," nor d( we know that any amount of inyestiga tion would enable us to lay this sin "to it! charge. But we observed in two sue cessive issues of the North < our messages appearing tinder the Tiead ing'of "From our Dunedin Correspond ent■ ;"" and withoitt any intention of con veying the idea that if was in the habi of making use of our telegraphic infor niafioii in this manner, we made tin statement as above, backed by L 5 for tlit Benevolent Society should we prove to h< in error. Our contemporary acd-pted tin challenge and deposited its L 5. Onb sufficient of the charge .has been provet to procure a return of our deposit, anr not enough to secure our contemporary's We are not going to say whether it emih or could not be proven that the Nortl Otarjo Times had taken our messages or more than two or three occasions, for w< only con i pared the issues in whicl it was in flagrante, delicto, and, indeed it has been demonstrated that tin North OUvjo Times has a Dunedin cor respondent who frequently wires then items similar in tenor to those receiver by us, and that in one of the instance: complained of the North Otago Time* ha<' actually at a later hour received a messag* similar to that which they for conveniens sake copied in an altered form from the Mail. Our contemporary charges us witl untruthfulness. We will relate the circnm stances, and leave the public to judge as to whether such a charge lies. Our wa: and other special telegrams, other thai those sent by the Press Agency, are pub lished by us simultaneously with theii appearance in the Dunedin -"'foe. Tin proprietor of that paper pays a high prici to obtain these, and the Mail agreed t< bear its share of the expense, at the sam< time stipulating that, as it had to pay foi the privilege of publishing these specia messages, it alone should be supplier with them in Oaniarn. This was tin understanding, but the proprietary of tin Mnr was incapable of protecting this righ inviolate, because certain papers were no prepared to recognise anything less thar an Act of Parliament as a barrier to their reproducing these messages. But. notwithstanding this, these telegrams are as much the property of the Stu-r. as, is ; novel the property of its author, until tin right to, republish it is procured. Then is," however, no copyright law in tin Colony, and these messages are there fore reproduced with impunity by thosi who refuse to recognise any moral obliga tion to obtain, them by fair means. Tin matter, then stands thus :—We obtaii these messages direct from the »SW in ; legitimate manner by paying for them and the Ottvjo Times oorrespondeu in Dunedin takes them from the .>'[« without permission, and without bearim a share of tha expense, and wire them to that journal. This is pur literary piracy. We do not knov that the proprietors of the North Off/;/. 7'imci were aware of haw these message: are procured. We presume that the; take them, ask no qu-stions, and an grat-'ful for them; but they know now and \v"t:usttha! they "-ill, as usual, d< the thing that is honourable. Now foi rhe charge pivb nvd against us of reproducing tlieir cablegrams, ''which an wired at from i- to ;{ a.m." wHiout eon irihufing anything for them. We pleat guilty to ("king them, but it is not inn I at, " flu- Mail contributes nothing foi r'..-m." B.ifi the Mail and the :Vortl (n,iio 7 '/');"'s subscribe, for Press Agencx h -I,'L'rams. and it nutters pot what ma\ bo t'iojr char; o'er, papers that, pay tin j yearly subscription to the Agency and tin j royalty of a penny per word for c-dile-i <_ r rams in addition, purchase the privilege of copying (ill Pri ss Agency telegrams. In order to settle this question beyond dispute we wired the Press Agency as follows:—"Are wo entitled to copy ail cablegrams from morning papers?'' to which we received the following reply : l; Y>'S. and morning papers those sent •.vening papers. —Press Agency." The ;act is. the v orth Ol'l'jo Times has been i hilir.'irin-r und'.-r an error. It asserts that ! because it pays something extra to the ! Telegraph Department in oriler to keep ! the other s open for t'-o .transmission of these late eahl.-nuns they urn their property : but- we pay the pres r ; Agency the spoeial r.--t': for them (as much as the 7;,>n-s and thus purchase the undoubted rig' c to publish them, the only acknowledgment nee ss-ry being that to the Press A"encv. We are therefore, under no comp'imentto tho TinciH, or, indeed, to anyrnm eW-, for thefio messages, which, if not published by our morning contemporary, would appear in our columns as usual, as they would be supplied to us by the Pri'so Agency on the day of puld'ea,fion. it is quit,! true that there are but few of tin s-.-i late messages, and that even if wc agreed to pay half the win) expenses incurred by our contemporary in procuring them, they would not amount to a very considerable sum ; but that is not the question. Our contemporary has no more claim on us to share in the liquidation of its wire charges than we have on them to assist us in paying ours. We might with greater show of reason complain that our morning contemporary copies all our Press Agency telegrams without acknowledgment, for, in all conscience, they should be protected, if payment «i heavy transmission rates entitles us to protection. But although our contemporary reproduces the whole of our Press Telegram Agency messages without any other acknowledgment than that of the Press Telegram Agency, they are entitled to do so, and we have no desire to complain. Tho whole gravamen of our charge was that our contemporary had appropriated some of our special information, and this it cannot deny ; but it did so in tho expectation, as we afterwards learned, that the same messages would be wired to them by a correspondent in Dunedin. Although this savors of the questionable principle that there is no harm in appropriating anything if you think you can return, it, we are quite satisfied with the ex] lanation. But there is one featureabout this arrangement that would scarcely satisfy some people. All newspaper correspondents are not on a par. JTqv,', if our special correspondent happens to be a pariicidariy energetic ■.no, which is really the case, and our ■ :ontemporary's happens to be otherwise ; we do not sav that it is so, but we are Hitting a supposititious case by way of iliistraf'ion—the pv«bability is that it vould frequently protir, a.r. our expense by i he adoption of such a course, for it mikes sure,-by clipping from our paper j ■arly in the evening of the matter sent I

by two Correspondents, whereas it onlypays for the services of one. With regard to the -assertion of the North Otago Times that it has three times the amount of new telegrams that we do, and that the arrangement that we should copy Press Agency telegrams from each other is "' vastly to the advantage of the Mail," we will leave the public to judge, after supplying them with the tariff charged by the telegraph department, which is as follows: —Morning newspaper rates: First 25 words, 6d ; every subsequent 25 words, 3d. Evening newspaper rates : First. 10 words, (id ; every subsequent word, one ■halfpenny ; 200 words being allowed at rateseharged tomorningnewspapers. From the above it will be seen that the charge to our contemporary for 1000 words would | be 10s. 3d., whilst for the same number we would have to pay LI 15s. 7d., for which our contemporary would procure 3,500 words, an amount that would nearly exclude any other matter from its columns.