The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1889. THE TIMES AND THE PRESS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1895, 23 May 1889, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1889. THE TIMES AND THE PRESS.

The Christchurch morning papers are just now having a picnic all to themselves. It is said that when poverty steals in through the casement love flies out through the door, and it may be so with our Christchureh contemporaries. In olden times, when both were rich and prosperous—m fact, literally speaking, coining money —they were fearfully and awfully and unspeakably decorous, and would not have uttered a word abusive of one another for any consideration—not even to be made the official gazette for all Government advertisements. Times have changed. Hard times have crept into the innermost recesses of their cash-boxes, and have evidently caused the love they bore for each other to effervesce into the air, and now they hate each other with a whole-souled, hearty, honest hatred, into which they frequently pour all their literary vigor. Once upon a time they were respectable twopenny papers, and only half their present sizes. The Press was then, as now, fearfully and terribly Conservative. The consequence was that it was losing ground—in fact, sinking into insignificance —and so its managers decided to lower its price to one penny. The Lyttelton Times met this move by doubling its size and adhering to the old price of twopence, and the change proved a auccesß. Still both papers maintained a dignified disregard of each other's existence, till the last election wrought a change. Both fought hard, with the result that the Lyttelton Times carried all Canterbury with it, and the Press was only able to claim Sir John Hall and Mr Rhodes out of the whole province. His own prestige secured Sir John Hall's election; his wealth secured Mr Rhodes's—andjso, strictly speaking, there was not a member in Parliament who owed the Press his election. This greatly incensed the Press ring. They could not brook the fact that their organ had not the slightest influence in the district, and so they resolved to make things lively for their opponent. The proprietors of the Press consist of very wealthv men—such am Mr Rhodes, M.H.R., Hon, Mr Peacock, Hon. Mr Stevens, Ready-money Robinson, Mr P. Cunningham, Mr Stead, Mr G-ould, and some others. All these are very wealthy men, and all of them are money-lenders, grainbuyers, middle-men, and agents for absentees. In olden times such people were condemned by the Church as usurers, and liable to pains and penalties; but we have reached the more enlightened age of ten per shent,, when money-lenders make the laws. These, of course, care nothing for making profit out of the Press; what they want is that it shall serve their ends, and so to secure that object they resolved to spend £60,000 in pushing the paper. With this expenditure they calculated they would ruin the proprietors of the Times, and that thus the very irritating thorn in their side would be effectually removed. In conformity with this resolution they doubled the size of the paper, still maintaining the price at

one penny; but, while the Press people were perfecting their arrangements, the Times got wind of the scheme, and lowered its price to one penny also. Still they remained decorously and solemnly respectable until about a couple of months ago. At that time a meeting sympathising with Mr Parnell was held in Christchurch. The movement was supported by the Lyttelton Times. Tha Hon. Mr Reeves (the principal proprietor of that paper) agreed to preside over i the meeting, but a misadventure prevented him from doing so, and his son, Mr W. P. Reeves, M.H.E., made the speech of the evening. In this the Press ring saw a splendid opportunity. Mr Baunders, one of their toadies, accused the Times of being published ," n * fche interests of Roman Catholics, and this :■*» by an article in the Press, ;* whjch it was held that Home Rule and were identical, and that because Lyttelton Times supported Home Rule'

it must of necessity be a Catholic organ. The object in view is obvious. In a recent election in the North of Ireland a landlord and a Home Ruler were candidates for the same constituency, and one of the electors marked his voting paper " No landlord I No Pope!" Ee would not vote for a landlord, and regarding the Home Ruler as a Catholic he entered his protest in the manner described. Unfortunately there are many who can be swayed by similar influences. Th«y are Liberal to the heart's core till their religious feelings are appealed to. The Press knows this well, and it has for some time past been stimulating and encouraging this feeling in various ways. In making the Lyttelton Times appear as an organ of Roman Catholics it aimed at raising a holy war against it, with the view of damaging its financial prospects as well as its political influence. The Times, of course, denied the soft impeachment, and pointed out that it had always opposed the claims of Catholics to a share of the education grant. The Press next accused it of haying flung the Catholics overboard, and so for about a week the fun went fast and furious. [ This over, ane of them turned its a ttention to the Czar of Russia and Gene ral Boulanger, with a libel or two on S !r Julius Vogel thrown in as spice, and the other, while not pulverising Sir Harry Atkinson into smithereens, was thanking its stars for the success of the "West Coast Eailway. "Alas for the rarity of Christian charity !" A new casus belli arose. Some time ago the Times entered into a controversy with some of the grainbuyers of Christchurch as regards the price of grain. Mr Joseph Gould, one of the proprietors of the Press, was then amongst the controversialists, and last week he returned to the charge by taunting the Times with the fact that the price of grain had not kept so high as it had predicted. He insisted that he had been the true prophet and the true friend of the farmers, while the Lyttelton Times had misled them with false hopes. The Times replied; the Press took up the fighting, and insisted on making it appear that the farmers had lost sixpence per bushel through the mis-, leading advice given to them by the Times, and the discussion has since been carried on angrily. Now this point is worth thinking over. At the time the articles appeared in the Lyttelton Times there was not one per cent, of the wheat of the district threshed, and consequently it could not have been sold before the price came down, even if a sentence had never been written on the subject. Again, who has told the Press that the prices will not go up again ? Our opinion is that they will go up when the ring has secured the wheat of the poor and needy over whom they hold liens and who must sell. At any rate, : the Lyttelton Times meant well, and if it made a mistake its failing leant to virtue's side. It meant to befriend the farmers, and that is what the Press did not. It will be remembered that not long ago some of the Press ring wanted to imporrj Kaffirs to shear sheep. Some of them have done worse with regard to wheat now. They have actually imported from California cargoes of wheat, with which they have flooded the Sydney market, and thus brought down prices and destroyed the chances of New Zealand farmers. Now could not these people have allowed the Sydney merchants to get grain from California if they wanted to ? Could not they have tried to place New Zealand grain on the market instead ? They could not. New Zealand farmers had the impudence to refuse to sell at whatever price the ring wanted, and the only way to bring the farmers to their knees was to flood the market on them with Californian wheat. These are the political reformers who at election times affect such concern for the interests of the farmers, and for whom farmers have been in the habit of throwing up their hats with a hip hooray. A woman, a spaniel, and a walnut tree— The more they are beaten, ths better they be. To this ought to be added that the more farmers are tricked and deceived the better they like the deceivers. We have only to add that there is any amount of room for hoping that the price of grain will go up yet. The British market is getting firmer, and that is a good sign; but let farmers remember that if it does they need not thank the Press ring—who are inundating the market with Californian wheat—for it.