The Southland Times. MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 1866.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 206, 22 January 1866, Page 2

The Southland Times. MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 1866.

Of all government institutions the Telegraph is most essentially the public's. It is established for the public, and paid for from the public purse. The mam purpose it is intended to answer is to disseminate news at an earlier hour than it would be possible to obtain it by either post or coach. In England and the Colonies this is the fundamental principle upon which it is worked, New Zealand only being the exception to the rule. The officers of this department are expected to award more consideration to the wants of the public than those of any other branch of the service. In the countries we have mentioned the press is afforded the greatest facilities for the obtainance of the latest news, the wires are supposed to be at their disposal up to the latest hour at night — in Victoria and New South "Wales, the Parliamentary debates and other public information are transmitted to the inland towns for press purposes up to midnight, whereby the public are placed in possession of news a day before they would otherwise receive it — the main utility of the telegraph would be destroyed if this was not the case. Those into whose hands the management of the New Zealand telegraph has been entrusted, appear to misunderstand the responsibility they have assumed, or are indifferent to the mode in which they discharge their duties. It would appear that they have no fixed system upon which to work, regulations are being continually changed, fresh orders arriving, andthevarious local officers crippled and cramped in their operations, so that they can scarcely be as lavish of their services as they themselves would desire. Almost the entire press of New Zealand has been loud in its complaining of the unsatisfactory working of this expensive public institution, still but little or no improvement is discernable. The telegraph department is the very worst managed portion of a very badly managed Government. Hitherto we have felt that the grievances of which we had to complain proceeded from the erratic or incompetency of the general management; we have, however, now a local grievance — we have a personal wrong to redress. From intelligence received from our Bluff correspondent, it appears that the South Australian arrived at the Bluff at six o'clock on Friday evening, that at seven the Campbelltown office, opened when a message was presented for transmission, but was refused, being told "that it could not be sent, on account of there being no one in the Invercargill office to receive them." To speak mildly this was a shameful instance of indifference to public requirements, and a positivewrongtotheSouthlandpress. Is it not monstrous to think that a vessel should i arrive at our port — we may use the phrase — only a score of miles from the town, bringing important news — news interesting to the whole community, and yet it should have been withheld because the Invercargill office ivas closed. Is it not great cause for complaint that Otago, Canterbury, and other Provinces distant from the B]uff hundreds of miles, should be in possesssion of the news per the South Australian, and Invercargill left in blessful ignorance of even the arrival of the vesssel. The whole system must be changed. Such injustice as this cannot be long endured.