New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. SATURDAY, JUNE 12,1875. NEWSPAPER JUSTICE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 111, 12 June 1875, Page 10

New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 1875. NEWSPAPER JUSTICE.

The newspapers tell us, amongst other things, that the Madrid Government, in Spain, is suppressing certain revolutionary journals, and that the clericals are in the ascendant. "Whether all this is true or false we do not know. But we never have believed anything we have seen in the newspapers in reference to Spain. According to these same papers, the Carlists were conquered, or at all events, ■were to have been conquered, years ago. The wish was the father to the thought, and probably such is the case even now. "We have no doubt whatever, that all newspaper reports as to Spain are utterly unreliable, and arise from prejudice rather than from fact.

But we draw attention to what these papers are now saying about Spain in order to institute a contrast. In the German Empire the Catholic press is ruthlessly persecuted, newspapers are suppressed, journalists imprisoned — an editor, who had escaped into Austria, has been captured there, and brought back to Prussia to be imprisoned because he had found fault with the injustice and tyranny of Bismarck. In Alsace and Lorraine, even one Catholic newspaper is not permitted to be published; and all Catholic newspapers from- without are withheld from the subscribers sometimes for months, sometimes altogether, by the post-office acting under the dictation of Government. But the newspapers, so keen-sighted as to see things in Spain that have never happened, take great care to ignore tne tyrannical acts of the German Government. Nor do the newspapers tell us anything about the conduct of the German Government in reference to the payment of newspapers in Germany and other countries for the publication of news and articles prepared by order of the German Chancellor. The reason, however, cannot but be obvious ; grown people seldom quarrel with their bread and butter. Throughout Germany, as also in other countries, the Press is inspired by the Prussian Government, which pays handsomely free and independent journalists for caluminating Catholics and their Church ; and the newspapers thus written have an unimpeded circulation everywhere. They are known everywhere now under the name of the Reptile Press. And well they deserve the name— but Catholics cannot answer their calumnies at all in Alsace and Lorraine, — in other parts of Germany they can do so at the risk of their properties and personal liberty. "Would it not be more just, more truthful, more honorable, and more manly in the newspapers to state these facts and denounce this tyranny, than waste their time and space in circulating imaginary facts and hallucinations about Spain. These however, may be amongst the things for the publication of which the Reptile Presf is paid.

Again, in its issue of last Tuesday, the ' Otago Daily Times' quoting the ' Graphic,' says 'the Eucalyptus qlobulus is to be planted round Rome as a preventative against Malaria. The project is due to Garibaldi." "Well, perhaps the " Sub-Alpine Government," which is no doubt under the influence of that great general, and illustrious warrior! ! has some thoughts of planting the neighbourhood of Borne with this tree. We do not know : but there will be some difficulty in finding the funds, as there are no more poor monks and nuns to be robbed — and the credit of the Government is very low. But should the eucalyptus be planted generally round Rome, very little- credit indeed will be due either to Garibaldi or the " Sub-Alpine " Government for such planting; and indeed we doubt if it will be done at all, unless the poor despised and outraged monks be permitted to complete that great work, which they alone had inaugurated many years before the Sardiniam usurpation, and at the risk of their lives proved to be practicable. But the press generally, influenced by the Reptile Press, takes no notice of the devotion, sacrifices, self-immolation of the good Cistercians who many years ago went into theCampagnadi Konue, at the rislc of their lives, for the purpose of cultivating that dreary waste, which, from the very dawn of history, had been unfit for human habitation, and rescuing it from the influence of Malaria by planting the eucalyptus. Several years before Victor EatMAircrEL set foot in Rome, and at a time when Garibaldi was fighting these great battles, and gaining these great military triumphs, which have made his fame immortal ! ! these good monks had succeeded in rearing this tree and proving its suitability for the purposes of reclaiming the Campagna. Had the revolution, with all its, hypocrisy, plundering, and legislative tyranny, been stayed, and the Papal Government been permitted to enjoy peace, the planting of the country round Rome with the Eucalyptus would havo Icon. to-day an accomplished fact, instead of being only a project, a project too, of which there is very little prospect of realisation. So much for Newspaper Justice. The fact is, the newspaper Press at present, is anything or everything according to the interest or prejudice of the> moment, and ie, in one way or another — either by suppression, suggestion, or positive falsehood — the great story teller of the day. Not that all editors are so thoroughly bad, but because prejudice blinds many, and makes them prone to accept what is dear to it, and because many, again, permit themselves to be easily imposed upon by men who claim to be of their party, but who are in reality the paid undertakers of the Reptile Press.