THE SUPPORT OF NEWSPAPERS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 929, 18 March 1882, Page 3

THE SUPPORT OF NEWSPAPERS.

The following from a New South Wales paper will be interesting to those who believe in supporting the Press : Judge Dowling is reported to have said when adjudicating in a case recently at the Maitland District Court, in which a defendant was summoned for subscriptions due for his newspaper, that “ a person who refused to pay for his newspaper ought to pay double.” At a first glance this may appear arbitrary, hut there is a deal of justice in it, and w.a will endeavor tn show how. In the first place no person can produce a:newspaper unless he,has, to begin with, a plant worth some £4OO or £SOO at the least. In-lhe next place the proprietor has to pay weekly some £ls to £2O in wages to bring the journal out; and in the last, though not by any moans the least instance, the quarterly subscription to a newspaper is so small that persons in the humblest sphere of life need make no great sacrifice in order to meet the printer’s bill, or if any person is in such a state of diie necessity that he cannot affjrd to pay for the paper lie reads he should be honest, and cease to receive an article he has no intention of paying for. The life of a journalist.under the most favorable auspices is not a very pleasant one. In the cause of the public, he frequently makes great personal sacrifices by creating the inveterate hatred of persons who have had to he criticised in connection with public grievances or exposures ; he is ever open to be molested with actions for libel ; and when it is considered that subscriptions only amount to shillings quarterly, and wages have to be paid in pounds weekly, some worthy effort should be made by persons who are at least over a year in arrears to sooth the pressman’s aching brow by squaring op.

Judge Dowling evidently had in his mind’s eye the uphill game a journalist has to fight, and the molestation to which he is at any time liable to be subjected. It is to be hoped that his Honor’s manly utterances will have a good effect in causing all persons lamentably in arrears to pay the newspaper man.