Poverty Bay Standard. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. GISBORNE: THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 1883.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1297, 15 March 1883, Page 2

Poverty Bay Standard. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. GISBORNE: THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 1883.

The Wellington “ Post ” of March sth, describes the feeling of the people of New Zealand as “Te Kootiphobia,” and all we can say is simply this, who have it not should be hooted from one end of the Colony to the i other. The “Post” says “They shriek and i rave, and foam at the month—on paper of | course.” Asa matter of actual fact the I “shrieking” was completed on the 9th of | November, 1868; the “raving” we totally disclaim; and as to the “foaming at the mouth—on paper of course ” we were merely ; making public the assertions of men whose • words may be taken to he as true as Holy 1 Writ. It is only a few days back we were accused of “ blood and thunder ” writing) . but what have we ever written which will compare with the following?—•“ They cover their pages with printed blood and typographical tears. They invoke all the horrors of Gehema upon the heads alike of the pardoned sinner, the pardoning Government, and the approving Press. No language is too violent, no abuse is too coarse to serve their turn.’* The pardoned sinner !! ! The pardoning Government ! '. The approving Press !1 I Now, we are going to talk candidly, and will put it simply thus : The man who would, or could ever wield a pen in the defence of the action of the present Government, or in an attempt to palliate the crimes committed and instigated by Te Kooti is undeserving of the name of a journalist; even if he should claim a right to be termed a man. A journalist must be independent, fearless, and outspoken, and we regret to say that the writer of the lender in the “Post” alluded to is neither one of the three. He is not independent, because he is pandering to a landgrasping Ministry, and he is not either fearless or outspoken, because he is afraid to offend the powers that be. He proceeds to say, “Nothing is easier to produce than * gush ’ and ‘ tall talk.’ Only, unfortunately, its value is as small as the labor it costs in production. It may impress a few vrn/ weakminded and soft-headed readers or listeners, but it only excites a smile of derision on the part of sensible people. ” So far as the Poverty Bay Standard is concerned we deny having used ‘ ‘ gush ” or “ tall talk. ” We simply echoed the fealings of the people resident in this district, and more especially of those who were resident here at the time of the massacre. Our articles were penned in order to point out the w’icked act of the Government; not to “impress a few eery weak-minded and soft-headed readers,” and the “ smile of derision on the part of sensible people ” was not seen on the countenance of any one residing here. The writer of the article in the “Post” simply writes on the subject like a schoolboy, and in a lame and halting—shall we say it—argument endeavors to show that the Government were right, and 1 that Te Kooti was right. Happy “ Post 1 Happy Government I The former gets paid in coin from the Colonial treasury, and the . latter by a piece of clever, if not honest, man-purring, obtain individually large and i valuable tracts of land.