TO BE OR NOT TO BE.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1107, 16 September 1873, Page 3

TO BE OR NOT TO BE.

I Something like a crisis in newspaper (history has come. The increase in the price of paper, and the expenditure necessitated by the supply of telegrams to the Press are facts which are making themselves felt severely. One Melbourne evening journal has collapsed, nid a morning paper is said to be in the market. lAir some time past the enormous expenditure on cablegrams has been felt to be a great drag on the resources even of a first class colonial i paper, and a considerable amount of [pressure has been brought to bear upon '«je governments of Victoria and j\ew South Wales to induce them to subsidise the cable for free press messages, but without practical effect at present. One Melbourne morning journal goes as far as to suggest the stoppage of all cablegrams for a few weeks, in order to enlist public sympathy with the movement. No doubt this would have a good effect. In large communities people do not like to forego a luxury once enjoyed ; and if the colonial politicians and merchants were deprived of their European news—twenty-four hours eld—for a few days, they would certainly feel the loss acutely , and possibly they would recognise the claims of the press to some consideration. The public seldom appreciate an institution properly until they are temporarily deprived of it; and if people were called upon to do without the local literary pabulum they would feel the loss more than they imagine. This loss would not be the only one. It behoves everyone to extend a more liberal support to " the paper." If they would preserve it from dying out through sheer inanition, arising from lack of that circulating medium as essentially necessary for the production of news as of bread and butter.