THE Wairarapa Mercury. SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1867. TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS AND THE PUBLIC.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 1, 5 January 1867, Page 2

THE Wairarapa Mercury. SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1867. TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS AND THE PUBLIC.

What is the primary want of the Wairarapa? To this abrupt but no less pertinent question a dozen persons will give a dozen different answers, and yet not one of them will be the true one. One will probably reply, “a member of the provincial Executive resident in the district;” another, “local self-government;” a third, “good roads, bridges, and ferries;” and a fourth, “a more equitable distribution of the. provincial revenue;” a fifth, “more efficient representatives; and a sixth, “more individual enterprise and industry in the people;” a seventh will say, “a good market for our stock and produce;” and an eighth, “a brewery, or domestic manufactures.” The ninth will maintain that the primary want of the Wairarapa, is “the opening of the lake;” a tenth, “want of capital;” an eleventh, “want of labor,” and a twelfth, “a railway to Wellington.” Most of these are wants no doubt, but not one of them conveys the true answer to the question. Probably not one of the twelve will give way, to the other, and yet all of them, without a single exception, will admit, the moment we state the faut, that the primary want of the Wairarapa is, or rather his been, — THE WANT OF A LOCAL NEWSPAPER. This is demonstratively its primary want, because it is by means of this the other wants of the district can alone be made known and recognized. The mightiest of the mighty means On which the arm of progress leans, Man’s noblest mission to advance, His woes assuage, his weal enhance, His rights enforce, his wrongs redress, Mighty of the mightiest is the PRESS.

We need not enlarge, at this time of day, on the power and importance of the newspaper press, nor is it necessary, that we should say anything upon the special advantages a local newspaper will be

calculated to confer on the district. The power and importance of the press is everywhere admitted; and, the generous support which has been given to us affords sufficient evidence that the advantages of a local newspaper have not been misunderstood or underrated by our fellow-settlers in the Wairarapa. So much has our success at the outset exceeded our expectations that we are enabled at once to make a material reduction in the price of the paper. Instead of, 40s. per annum, as first announced, we shall charge 30s., or 26s. only, if paid in advance. This reduction commences with the very first number of the paper. Nor is it our intention alone to reduce its price; as we shall increase its size, “if,” as shipping agents say, “sufficient inducements offer.”

The columns of the Mercury will be open to all persons, classes, or parties to express their views, but it does not therefore follow that the editor has no opinions of his own, or. that he will forbear to give utterance to them. He is well aware that if he tries to please everybody he will please nobody, and he does not intend to make the effort. If the Mercury is not a party paper, it is because there is no well defined party within or without the General or Provincial Legislature to support or oppose. When there is we shall take either one side or the other and not so “dilute our political sentiments” to please both, until they become as weak insipid and useless as milk-and-water, or “a chip in porridge.” The present times are not such as to render wishy-washy comments on men and things pleasant or even tolerable. The affairs of the colony, of the province, and of this district will not be improved on the “let alone” principle, or by the adoption of a neutral tone in politics, whether by private men or by public journals. We are free from all party bias, but as there are two sides on all great political questions, we shall not endeavor to secure the support of both by opposing neither. In brief, we have decided views of our own, and we mean, when the occasion arises, to express them. Truth requires at all times to be outspoken, and particularly so under present circumstances. “For,” as Miss Edgworth makes one of her characters say, “the delicate, guarded, qualifying, trimming, poucnet-box, gentleman-usher mode of speaking truth makes no sort of impression. Truth should always be strong speaking or acting.” The privilege, however, of expressing our own views, which we thus claim for ourselves we willingly accord others. Anyone can say what he pleases on any question, and take what side he pleases in our columns, with the distinct understanding that no attacks on private men, or public men in their private relations will be tolerated.

Amongst the local questions which will first engage our attention and advocacy will be a railway to Wellington ; the opening of a monthly market; an electric telegraph station at Greytown; the establishment of a brewery; a more equitable distribution of the provincial revenue; local self-government; and the supremacy of English law over both races. The importance of the first overshadows all the rest, but we will not lose sight of any of them. If there had been a local newspaper in the Wairarapa, it is not too much to say the preliminary steps for the construction of a cheap railway would have already been taken; and it only required the existence of a local newspaper to render the opening of a market a matter of course. With regard to the railway, the object, as in America, should be to open up the country at all hazards to railway communication, leaving improvements to be affected afterwards by the wealth which that communication will create. To effect this, not a quarter the cost of one of, the cheapest branch railways at home need be incurred. A single line of wooden rails from the Forty Mile Bush to Featherston will be all that in the first instance is required. In the meantime, we invite the expression of the well-weighed opinions of intelligent correspondents on the feasibility and cost of constructing a railway to Petoni or Wellington. The question of income must of course be dealt with on the accepted theory, “not to wait for traffic to create railways, but to make railways that will create traffic.” The short time which unforseen circumstances have allowed us to get out the first number, of the Mercury on the day appointed, and the obstacles which necessarily, present themselves to the successful starting of a new journal in a country district, must be our excuse for any errors or imperfections which may be discovered whether mechanical, typographical, or, literary. In these and other respects we shall make continual efforts towards improvement. If adequately supported we, do not intend for the Mercury to be second to any journal published in the Province; and though printed in the Wairarapa, it may be able to take as honest and as far-seeing a view of colonial questions as it would probably do if issued from an office at Auckland or Christchurch, the “Empire City” or Dunedin.

In conclusion, we have to express our hearty thanks for the generous patronage accorded to us, to solicit the further aid and co-operation of our fellow-settlers in the undertaking, and to wish our supporters, one and all “the compliments of the season.”