THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 1910. A DISGRACEFUL CLAUSE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9685, 8 January 1910, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 1910. A DISGRACEFUL CLAUSE.

It is, perhaps, only natural that Socialists' of a certain type, who largely owe their present state of liberty to a free press, should endeavour to shackle the press to the utmost of their powers. The friend of liberty is the man who asks not only for liberty for himself but for others, while the communistic Socialist who has not learned to use intelligently the freedom won for him by his forefathers is obsessed with an intense desire to compel i everyone to conform not merely to his way of thinking and living, but to dictate (o all and sundry as to their every action. The hostility, which a free press excites on the part of such individuals would be amusing did it not indicate a most deplorable deficiency in the wav of moral and mental stamina. An instance of what some "democrats" are capable of is a clause contained in the Electoral Bill wh'ch came before the New South Wales House of Representatives last month. An Australian contemporary declares in mild language that "it is a drastic one. and aims at a serious infringement of the present liberty of the press." The clause in question is as follows: —"Subsequent to the day of nomination and until after polling day any newspaper may print and publish the speech of any candidate, but if so, such paper shall give equal space and prominence to each, but shall not comment in any way upon such speech during the period aforesaid, and shall not in its leading columns or otherwise advocate any policy or party or in any way attempt to influence the vote of any elector; penalty £SOO or six months'." Is it possible to imagine a more completely tyrannical proposal? Yet the men who advocate it call themselves lovers of liberty! A paper, they say, must not advocate any policy or party, it should be, according to their glorious ideals, an absolutely colourless thing without convictions, without opinions, without even a sense of right or wrong. Such a paper could only be successfully edited by some of the beings who sympathise with the clause quoted. The more one considers the proposal the ire?

inconceivable it is that it could ever have found its way into any Bill coming before a parliament owning allegiance to the British Flag. Perhaps the most preposterous part of the clause is that providing that equal space and prominence shall be given to each candidate. Some "hare-brained" stump orator who may choose to "put up for the 'ouse" is to be given equal space and prominence with, say, a Minister of the Grown, who has proved his worth as a statesman. If such "stuff" ever becomes law in New South Wales it is to be hoped

that the press of that country will have backbone enough to.treat it with the hearty contempt that it de serves.