The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 1898.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XX, Issue 4478, 26 April 1898, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 1898.

Our attention haß been drawn to a long article m the local Standard, m which attacks are made on the Chairman of the County Council ; also to a letter — evidently from the same pen as that which produced the article — assailing tbe Clerk of the Longbeaoh Road Board. Both of these effusions are prompted by tbe same motive, the faot that the local bodies will not ' accept the absurd valuation of the Standard as a circulating medium -which the coterie connected with it strive to attach to it. As for the contemptible attacks upon the officials of the County Council and the Longbeach Road Board, because they cannot be cajoled or coeroed into needlessly spending the money of the ratepayers, they may be safely left to the good sense of the public, who, well posted as all are m the matter of the Standard's circulation, can easily judge whether there is any excuse for attemptingby threatening and abuse to frighten public men into wasting public money. There is one point m the editorial effusion under notice which may be iust as well replied to once and for all. That is, the ridiculous and often repeated assertion that the Standard has any circulation to speak of outside the circle of Bub-, scribers to the Guardian and Mail. We have nobody on our staff mean enough to enter upon the system ot espionage that was adopted by the Standard to find out if possible what was the circulation of the Mail The "rod m pickle" trick was a miserable failure, m spite of impudent attempts to undo our parcels at railway stations, on the trains, and m the postcarts, and the chasing of our runners over tbe country to see where papers were delivered. Yet without resorting to any such tactics, we have had unsolicited data given to us as to what extent the Standard really is circulated, and how many people m the district are content to pay for a sheet whose " Latest Cables" are written with the scissors, every line of its telegraphic news produced by the same agency, and which yields for press telegrams not a penny m wire charges to the Government The stronghold of any paper circulating m this county must of necessity be the most closely settled districts, and these are those on the line of the postman who carries the mail to Wakanui, Riverside, Seaview, Seafield, Kyie, etc. On that round less than thirty copies of this clamant and unscrupulous sheet are circulated. In the extensive Forks — Winchmore district, the number is less than twenty. In those two districts some hundreds of settlers pay annual subscriptions to the Mail, besides others who subscribe to the Guardian. We mention these facts because we know them to be facts, and because they can be verified by anyone who has sufficient curiosity to do so. Of course Road Board officials know these things as well as we do, and as the two portions of the county instanced may be taken as samples of the whole, cjoubtleas • the Road Board officials know of other facts m this connection which have not come to our knowledge, and which we have not considered it our business to investigate, being satisfied that we have the support df the large majority of the many newspaper readers that are to be found m all the districts. One word m conclusion. It is welj knewn m business circles that the local bodies have been almost too liberal with the ratepayers' money m view of the facts above given, as most of those farmers who have been pestered into subscribing to the Standard are also subscribers to either the Mail or Guardian, which papers represent a weekly issue of nine publications as against three of the other sheet. It is thus absurd to suppose that any well informed person can persuade himself into thinking that the farmers and business men of this county can be gulled into believing such statements as have been made by the writer referred to. As to the attack upon the Chairman of the County Council, that gentleman is perfectly able to take care of himself, as his assailant will probably very soon find out.