The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, AUGUST 28 1883. PUBLIC OPINION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1468, 28 August 1883, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, AUGUST 28 1883. PUBLIC OPINION.

THERE ia an interesting article in the Juno number of the ■" Nineteenth Century" magazine on the manufacture of public opinion. Public opinion is recognised in New Zealand as well as in Englaid as the motive power by which Ministries are. sustained and overthrown " legislation answering to it as the electric bell answers to the pressure of a button," and it has become both here and at home a sort of idol before which men must bow down and worship. Shrewd people finding by experience the practical value of public opinion mako it their business to create or manufacture it to serve the particular objects they have in view, In England, it is said, hosts of men expert at the task are hired to manufacture public opinion to the order of their employers', and we have not been without similar experiences in this colony and this district. The present Ministry pets a somewhat bad example with respect to public opinion, They do not deliberately manufacture it as some sections of the opposition do, but they bow down before it. They will not put questions of public policy to tho test of principle, but leave them to be decided by that awful oracle "public opinion," Of courso there is no harm but much good in creating a right public •pinion, viz,, by inculcating true and right principles. This is; however, not the business of the professional manufacturers of public opinion, They, have usually some end in view of a selfish and ar interested character. The means by which they hope to attain their desires must be supported:by public opinion. Their method of procedure is very, simple. They claim public opinion as their ally, and by direct and indirect approaches do all they can' to cement, the partnership. Tke creation of a sound and wholesome public opinion founded on the application of right principle) is a very different thing to the spuriouß public opinions we so frequently see paraded. The latter are, in many cases, of mushroom-like growth, and, the outcome of deceitful lips and of impure minds.. In England the growth of a healthy public opinion'as well as the manufacture of the inferior imitation article is fostered, Thousands of Debating Societies, and hundreds of more pretentious associations springing from thorn discuss all phazes of public questions intelligently and fairly, "We: are glad whenever we see such methods of arriving at right conclutidns adopted in this ;»10ny.., :Colonists; who unite . for such..purposes help' to' :! oieate"a ! sound public opinion that will secure, the welfare and good governmeut of

the community, They are not to be classed with professional agitators, who, to secure some private greed of place or power, appeal to the passions l and prejudices of the multitude, instead of to their consciences, and; trade, and oftentimes triumph oh their weaknesses. There are right and wrong public opinions, and it is generally easy to distinguish between them by weighing carefully the- characters -"of"those persons .who profess and' advocate them. If they, be not men' of ''k'nWn probity, nfid integrity—men. Whose word is their bond in ordinary business transactions—it will be. a wise precaution to regard with a good deal' of suspicion the sentiments which they put forth, as the chances are they will turn out to be the wrong article.'