The Power of the Press.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2875, 17 April 1888, Page 3

The Power of the Press.

Some members of the Auckland press recently made a determined fight for what they considered to bo their rights, In the Police Court in that town, reporters and lawyers used to sit at the same table, the pressmen taking the suta next to the Bench, while the hnv.ttjflll took the other side. The reason o! this arrangement was that the reporter's box was so placed that from it, what was being said in Court could not be heard. Existing arrangements did noc meet with approval in some quarters, One day last week, they found the table so closely pressed against the rostrum that only the lawyer's side was available, To uso the reporterial phrase, they took in the situation at a glance, They resolved that whoever should go without sitting and writing accommodation they should not, so they jumped the lawyers' position. When proceedings were about to commence, the Clerk of the Court, who *wus responsible for the change, ordered the reporters away from the table to the box from which they could not hear anything, They refused to move, and then a discussion took place in which reporters, Magistrates, lawyers, and the Clerk of the Court joined. The tek said that the reporters inconvejSlncecl the lawyors, and that was the reason they were no longer to be allowed a seat at the table. Messrs (Meagher and Cooper, who were, it seems the only lawyers in Court, denied that the reporters ever had inconvenienced them in the least, and added that oftentimes they were indebted to the reporters for minor civilities which they could not obtain from the Court. The Cleric then assumed a dictatorial air, and wished to know whether the reporters would move, or should he be compelled to shift them. The pressmen were still as immovable as rocks, The Bench was appealed to, but with the result that the decision was entirely in favor of the press men. The Magistrate recognised the imporfcfince of the duties they were called upon to perform, and ordered the table to be restored to its original position, and the reporters to be reinstated in their former seats. The Auckland pressmen, (says the Christchurch Telegraph) are to be congratulated on the firm jiand they made for their rights andfs the victory they gained in this amusing little contest,