THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1913. THE PRESS AND PUBLIC MORALS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 17 February 1913, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1913. THE PRESS AND PUBLIC MORALS.

The press of New Zealand, taken by and large, will-compare more than favourably with that of other States in the Southern Hemisphere. There are a great many people, outside the pale of journalism, who pretend, a better knowledge of how -a newspaper should bo conducted than they do of the business or vocation in which they ate themselves employed.

knowledge is put to the test, it is found to be of the spurious, or superficial kind. It is as well to state that the functions of the independent newspa pet" press are not to piny the part of the phonograph for every wind of doctrine that hovers over the political or social horizon, They are of a higher, and nobler order than that. It iis the privilege, as well as the duty, of every newspaper that is worthy the name, to direct public opinion in such channels as will make for the uplifting of mankind, the amelioration of the condition of the people, and the advancement of that order of society which we are pleased to term civilisation. If a newspaper fails in this mission, it is because it either surrenders its principles to mercenary considerations, or becomes .subservient to influences of a party or social character. In well-governed communities, the newspaper is respected' for the wholesome' influence it exercises upon public morals, and for the security it offers the people against grave abuses. It is recognised by criminologists that the fear of publicity is a greater deterrent to crime, than the fear of physical punishment. Thus, when a. newspaper publishes th'e details of a crime, or an offence against society, it does a real service to the community in arousing public condemnation against the perpetrator. in quickening sympathy with the victim, and in placing the, people 011 their guard against possible exploitation. The Primitive Methodist Conference thinks that the public morals may be affected by the publication of the details of homicides. And yet the Ministers of the iMethcdixt persuasion are preaching a doctrine from every pulpit, on every Sunday, in which homicide is pourtrayed in a most gruesome form. The "newspapers, as the cWgy, have a sacred duty to perform. If they fail in that du,ty\ society and Christendom will be the poorer. The clergy has no more right to tell the press what it shall publish, than the press has to tell the clergy what' it shall preacn". Thp only justification for the limitation of the freedom of the Dross is to secure the righteous principle of the coal government of the people. Hv the -samp token, the only restriction that should he placed upon liberty of speech' is to conserve the hest interests of society as a whole. Independent- newspapers resent "dictation hy pandering and place-seeking Governments. even as they repudiate attacks bv violent purists and designing quacks. It is very much to ho dc-

plored that there Imi.s grown up in this Dominion of lute a desire on the part of certain people to restrict the privileges of the press. It will he a bad day for the Dominion, and a worse day for its institutions, when this desire is gratified. The people, fortunately, appreciate their own freedom too much to permit- a Further encroachment- upon those ritrlits which have been purchased through the blond of martyrs.