The Oamaru Mail WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1173, 20 January 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1880.

Wb to-day. received from the Comm:3..,3»yier o£ Crown Lands at Invercargill the following memo :—" Will yoa kindly iV temler'for inserting the enclosed notice in k '. 'your gaper for three • months 1" The notice. referred to announces the sale • under the deferred payment system of ' ' acres, of agricultural land in the Southland district. This is an extraordinarily large amount of agricultural land to be announced for sale in one advertise- : count. Yet the action of the Government, in calling for tenders for advertising the notification concerning it, leads to the impression that their intention is to restrict j * the advertising to papers that will cut 3*>wn their ordinary charges. Such a policy is penny wise and pound foolish," »nd a another instance of the stupidity of i- ftfoe' Government in the management of their advertising. If the disposal of the :< land in question were in the hands of a " private individual, he would not call for •»> lenders for the insertion of adverfise- : ■ meat* announcing its sale for a period of three months. He would deem it of paramount importance, seeing that every newspaper is read by a number of people wHo> never even see any other paper, to insert his notification in all newspapers ~ published in communities some of whose . numbers would be likely to beinterestedin . the sale. He would reckon that it would be inSnitely more profitable to publish his announcement for six weeks, or even half that period, in twenty papers, thari to - ■■insert it for three months in ten, even if lie, by doing so, was compelled to abandon the advantages of the reduction in price which might accrue from giving it to a few papere for a long term. To expect the Government to adopt a wise advertising policy whilst the business of distributing the t c. advertisements is left to irresponsible clerks or other officers in the several departments, is tantamount to expecting to

"gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles." This is one of the duties of their offices that they do not in the smallest degree understand. They do not act economically; they ,only act-in such a manner as to defeat the object they should have in view—that.of obtaincbe greatest amount of publicity at the the smallest possible expense. : We have before us a few examples of the 'impolicy which prevails in the distribution of government advertisements. We might add to these examples ad infinitum were it necessary to do so. An advertisment calling for the supply and delivery <Sf uniforms for certain New Zealand railway officials, and which emanated from the Railway Commissioner's office, was inserted on the 10th of this month in seven newspapers, to our knowledge, but perhaps it appeared in others. As the period for tendering does not expire until the 21st of this month, the advertisement will be inserted in each of these papers ten times, the approximate cost being L3O. We need not say that neither we nor our contemporary were favored with this advertisement ; such favors are reserved for the faithful. Now, if it is necessary that the Government should exercisestrict economy in the bestowal of their advertisements, it was the height of absurdity to give such an announcement to the two Invercargill papers. By what process of reasoning did the intelligent official who was entrusted with the distribution of this advertisement deem it necessary to insert it in the Invercargill papere and not in those of Oamaru. He must be ignorant of the fact that Oamaru and Invercargill occupy similar positions in point of importance, or, perhaps, like too many of his class he seldom puts himself to the trouble of thinking about such unimportant mattere. A thoughtful and intelligent official, whose soul is above purchasing popularity in the exercise of the functions of hi 3 position, would have advertised only in tho3e places whence there was some probability of obtaining a response, and he would not act in such a manner as to lead to the impression that he had made invidious and aen3eles3 distinctions. Another announcement, emanating from the same officer is one headed "Special caution to passengers." This has never appeared in the papere published in this district. We came across it in a Dunedin paper. If it i 3 important that this notification should appear at all, it is important that it should appear in the papers of every railway centre of the Middle Island. To notify only the people of Dunedin and Christchurch is to deprive the people of other districts of the important information which it contains. But one of the most glaring instances of stupidity and misappropriation of public money was that of calling for tenders for the construction of a dredge for the Greyinouth Harbor in the Grey River Argus (none of. whose readers are in a position to undertake the work), and in three papers in Dunedin, in which city there are only two, or three firms, at most, who were likely to be interested in its contents. Now, this sort of thing ought not to be allowed to exist. We have no hope of ever getting any assistance from the present Government. Their professions of disgust at what they termed the corrupt advertising policy of the late Goverenment were only used to accomplish a selfish object, and not with any desire to effect reform. But we must protest that it is time that the present slipshod system of distributing Government advertisements, as though out of a pepper-box, or to political friends, should be at once discontinued.