The Price o f Independence.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1752, 25 September 1875, Page 2

The Price of Independence.

The following letter has been forwarded to us by Mr Levy, with a request for its publi-

cation :—

(To the Editor of the Evening- Star ) g[ r On Monday morning, as I was proceeding to the Police Court, to hear the charge that had been brought against me by the Customs' authorities,- Mr. Bent, of the Echo, came up to me at the cotfcer of High-street, and saying be was sorry to hear of the case on at tbe Police Court, asked me if he could do anything for me. I replied that if he wanted to oblige me, he might do so by keeping the report out of the Echo, as there was nothing to be gained by publishing it. He then said that if I could get the other papers to do it, he would, and that I could use the "leverage of the Echo" to induce the other , papers to do so A short time after the case had been decided, one of the Echo's people (a report*- of the name of Henderson) went to my brother and askedbim "what about tho Custom's case and if he should report it " he replied "he could see nothing to be gained by giving publicity to the case." He then asked my brother for an advertisement for the Echo, who enquired if the advertisement would be the price of his silence. He

replied, "That was putting the matter very plainly." My brother then said ''You shall have an advertisement; you can insert

in your paper the following : ' That in consideration of our having suppressed the report of the Customs case that was tried at_ the

Police Court this morning, we have given this as an advertisement to the Echo.' He then said he would see me. The reporter afterwards came to me and asked for an advertisement, I asked him who sent him, and he gave me an evasive answer. I then told him I would not give him an advertisement as a sop, as the proposal of doing me a favour had first emanated from Mr. Bent himself, but that if I could put anything in their way hereafter I might d< so. He then left. On Thursday morning Mr. George Joues, Junr., stopped me in the street and asked me to meet him at Mr. Isaac's store in five minutes "as " said he, "it would appear suspicious to be seen speaking together in the street." When 1 met him there, he told me that keeping the report out of his paper had injured him, and that he had received several letters upon the I subject, and that some of his supporters had loft him in consequence, and he considered lit would be better for me to explain the matt .r. After leaving Mr. Isaacs' store, we -were .oinerl by my brother, whouo I introduced to Mr. Jones, who said to him " w« were just ta'kim.' about the case," and stated to him what he had already told me about receiving letters &c My brother replied that he did not think the subject worthy of notics. as the agitation upon the subject had emanated from a small uniufiuential clique of agitators and not from the respectable portion of the community. Mr. Jones then told us that he would like to write a leader explanatory of the affair, generalising on it and advised us as a friend and "brother mason" to have it done. My brother replied .that "takiDg into consideration the movers in the matter, we could afford to treat it with contempt. Mr Jones then said that the leader spoken of was already written and partly in typ-", and that he would go and withdraw it, and he loft us with the impression that as it was opposed to our wishes, nothing further would be written about it, so you can imagine my surprise to see in the same^evening's issue a leader on the subject containing many particulars that were'true and many that were quite the reverse. From this it will beseen that the first suggestion of any "favor" being done to me by the newspapers came from the so-much vaunted "independent paper';" that it was Mr Bent, the foreman, that urged me to see the other papers, and use the fact of the Echo having agreed to keep silent as a " mighty lever " to move the other papers; that° it was proposed by them that I should give them an advertisement as the payment of their silence, and that it "was when I made little of their favour and refused an advertisement that then they turned round, and becoming highly virtuous, proclaimed their independence and the purity of the Press. I had never thought of asking the papers to do anything in relation to the case until it was suggested to me-by Mr. John Bent. And having had communication on the subject with all the papers, I can positively state that no paper except the Echo endeavoured to make any profit out of the transaction.— Yours, &c, Moss-M. Levy.