The Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1891. THE PRESS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2161, 10 February 1891, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1891. THE PRESS.

The Christchurch Press is getting quite pathetic. It is really falling into a melancholic state ever the . change of Government. The lamentations of Jeremiah were nothing in point of dolefalness to the wailings of the Press over the fall of the Atkinsonian regimS. It tells us that confidence has been destroyed, and that the feeling is worse to-day than it has been for the last 12 months. It pictures in glowing terms the glorious degree of prosperity we reached under Atkinsonianism, and predicts ruin to the colony through the power having passed into the hands of the Liberal party. We pity j the Press; we pity it because of its j imbecility j we pity it as we would any j

poor creature deprived of reasoning faculties, It is no doubt hard on it. It has spent thousands upon thousands ®f pounds in the vain effort to convert the electors of this colony to its peculiar views. It has lost its money preaching in the wilderness, without exercising the slightest influence in this provincial district. It is hard ou it, but it does not deserve better fate. Its object is to delude, not enlighten. It seeks to foster and promote monopolies at the expense of the people; it has been found out, and consequently its influence is gone. And what is all this dolefulness over the change of Ministry ? It is simply the old tune we have so often heard played before: “ Run down the colony, and thus discredit the Liberals.” That is the key-note now. It is the old, old story. When Sir George Grey was in power it was exactly the same, and during Sir Robert Stout’s tenure of office the Tory newspapers were continually running down the colony, while many wealthy colonists in England took every opportunity to cry down everything. The London Standard, the organ of the English Tories, the Melbourne Argus, the Sydney Morning Herald, and Tories everywhere ran down the credit of the colony, and it was an open secret that they were inspired by the Tones of Hew Zealand. We shall soon see the same thing going on again. Mark Twain, who knows something about newspapers, says of the London Tory Press:—“They lie firmly, they lie frankly, and they lie squarely; they lie with heads erect, and they are not ashamed of their profession.” Mark

has not extended his travels to New Zealand, If he had read our Tory journals he would have backed them for square, frank, firm, and unblushing lying with even the English Conservative lying. They live on lies, and the champion liar of all is the Christchurch Press. Is there a man living now who can stand up and say “ I believe the change of Government has already destroyed public confidence.” Not one of any repute. Yet the Press does not blush to say it, when it knows no one will believe a word of it. But this is the stuff the Tories like to read evidently. They like to be deceived, and consequently support the Press. It was so in "V ictoria years ago. The same class fought hard against progress exactly as the Tories of New Zealand are fighting against it now. But the reforms were effected in spite of them, with the result that no party benefited so much as the Tories themselves. In Victoria they were enriched against their will, and the result of progressive measures in this colony must be exactly similar Neither Liberal nor Tory need therefore fear that a progressive policy can injure him. Such a thing is impossible. If the colony is made more prosperous at all both must benefit by it, even birds which foul their own nest like the Christchurch Press.