H.-No.S

20

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE OF THE

Mr. Barton.

Will Oct, 1871

that arrived after my return to Dunedin came upon the Bth September, and I think those telegrams contained the very important news of the outbreak of the war between France and Germany. I think the telegrams arrived at Hokitika on the night of the Bth September, They were handed in by our agent, Mr. John White, now a member of the House of Representatives, at 10 o'clock on the night of fcfce Bth September. The telegrams were received at the Daily Times office at 12 o'clock. They were coming through at 12 o'clock midnight. I was in the Daily Times office at that hour. I concluded of course that all papers in the Association would be receiving their telegrams about the same hour— allowing for distance. Among the papers in the Association wa3 the Evening Post, which was then, as it is now, in opposition to the existing Government. I should have stated before that I declined to take in the Wellington Independent, a Ministerial organ, because the terms proposed were such that I could not accept. On the following morning I inquired by telegram from the papers whether they had received the English mail telegram, and I was surprised to learn that the Evening Post had not received its telegram that night. We afterwards ascertained that the telegrams had been kept in the Wellington office from the time at which they arrived, which must have been twelve o'clock on the night of the Bth September, until seven or eight o'clock next morning. That is the telegram for the Evening Post, which was addressed solely to the Evening Post in VYellington. The Evening Post was the only paper in Wellington that could have received its telegram first. I also ascertained from our agent, Mr. White, that he had been an hour before the agent of the Wellington Independent in getting the telegram in at the Hokitika office, and according to the usual management of the department, and the express regulations, the telegrams first received were to be first transmitted. Consequently if the Evening Post had received its telegrams according to the usual practice of the department, it would have received them at least an hour before the Independent had received it's. I telegraphed to Mr. Lemon to ascertain the reason for the extraordinary departure from their usual practice, and I received from him in reply — \_Mr. Lemon here produced the telegram, as follows : —" Wellington, 10th September, 1870. Barton, Daily Times, Dunedin. See last part of last circular, addressed you, and all other papers relating to where two wires are in circuit. We have only ono wire from Hokitika to Christchurch. The last time mail came your telegram monopolised the wire to the detriment of private work. We make our own arrangements for working circuiis, irrespective of persons. C. Lemon."] I could make nothing of that telegram so far as the departure from practice was concerned, and I may state that on showing it to a telegraph officer for an explanation he could not explain it either. 46ti. Mr. Lemon.] Did you ask him if he had seen the circular it referred to ?—No, I did not. I did not think it would have had anything to do with the matter. I afterwards ascertained that these telegrams had been sent to the Ilawke's Bay Herald, a ministerial journal, a member of the Press Association, and had been received and published by the Ilawke's Bay Herald actually before it had been received by the Evening Post in Wellington. 467. Mr. Fbgel.] How did you ascertain that?—By telegraph. I will explain in a minute how. In the Ilawke's Bay Herald of the 9th September, I observed the whole of these telegrams, and also a paragraph stating that they had received their telegrams in time for the usual morning publication. In accordance with the usual practice of printing offices, any morning newspaper—the Herald, for instance—would have gone to press at 2 to 3 o'clock, or at 3 o'clock in the morning, and would have been published at about 5 o'clock. 468. Was the Ilawke's Bay Herald a daily paper ? —I think it was a tri-weekly paper. 469. Is it an invariable practice to go to press at two or three o'clock in the morning ? —lt is the usual practice to go to press about three, and publish at about five or six. It would all depend upon the staff and other things. 470. Do I understand you to assume that the Hawke's Bay Herald received its telegram about a certain hour because it was usual to go to press at a certain hour. Is that the only evidence as to the time at which the 11,'rald received the telegrams ? —They published the telegrams upon the morning of the 9th September, and must have received those telegrams in time to enable them to print them and work them off and publish them, which would have taken them some hours. Even if they published at eight o'clock they must have received those telegrams some hours —two to three hours before that. The publication of long English telegrams involves some delay, because they require to be written out, then set up, proof pulled, corrected, and revised before their publication. A reference to Hansard of last year will show that the Hon. Colonel Whitmore asked a question in the Council as to the cause of the delay in the transmission of tho3e telegrams, and the Hon. Mr. Gisborne said he would enquire into the matter. Mr. M'lndoe asked the Commissioner of Telegraphs, in the House of Representatives, a question upon the same subject, to which Mr. Vogel replied : —" Telegrams are transmitted in the order in which they are received." Now, it.seemed perfectly clear tome, as editor of the Otago Daily Times at that time, that the telegram addressed to the Evening Post —an opposition paper —had been delayed improperly by the Telegraph Office for purposes which I could only explain as political purposes; that is, to save the Independent —a Ministerial journal —the humiliation of a defeat upon such an important occasion, the Telegraph Department had been instructed to delay those telegrams in the Wellington office so that the Wellington Independent might come out next morning with its telegrams at the same time as the Post. That was the interpretation I put upon it. At the same time, this obstruction of the limit of 200 words occurred, without any letter informing me of the fact, so far as I can recollect. The Government had broken the understanding between themselves and the papers, and had suddenly interposed this obstacle to the proper despatch of our telegrams by requiring the officers at the various stations to send but 200 words at a time. I also received a letter from the General Manager informing me that the Commissioner of Telegraphs declined to allow the reduction which he had agreed to recommend of 25 per cent, upon the wire charges. 471. Did the Manager state he had recommended, or agreed to recommend ? —He told me he would recommend it to the Commissioner. 472. You stated you received a letter, in which the Manager said that the Commissioner declined to accede to the reduction that the Manager had recommended ? —I did not state that the letter said the Manager did recommend it. I simply gave the substance of the letter.