THE WRITERS OF REPUTATION.

Press, Volume I, Issue 21, 12 October 1861, Page 2

THE WRITERS OF REPUTATION.

Most persons have heard the story of the old man who quarrelled with his wife as to whether something had been cut with a knife or with a pair of scissorsThe man said the knife, the woman insisted on the scissors, and that, with such peculiar power of aggravation that her husband very properly threw her into the horsepond. As the woman sank to to the bottom, one hand not " clothed in white samite," yet "mystic wonderful," appeared above the surface, indicating vigorously with the two first fingers the clipping action of scissors, and so she was "drawn under in the mere "—a martyr to the rights of all voluble old womeu to have the last word. The " Writers of Reputation" in ' The Lyttelton Times' vindicate the privileges of age and sex. We

thought all these attacks on ' The Press' wer end; we thought we were beneath the no ti Cc "f these aristocrats of the literary intellect of C t bury. Well, so far as any appeal to the publisher" are concerned, it may be so ; but ' The Lvtt 1 Times' publishes periodically, a summary o f n for the English public, and it informed its English readers on Saturday last, that the feel favourable to Mr. Moorhouse "was considerab] § enhanced by the violent and continuous personal attacks levied at him week after week in the colum of' The Press' newspaper." s

Now we do not care to notice any attack on 0 selves from gentlemen who have shrunk from deali o with any one of the subjects which have been the co ° mon topics of conversation amongst all persons int ested in local politics of late ; who, professing to kee * the public informed on public affairs, have tried t hush up every important event which could tell against the government whose paid printers they arethe matter of the Branch Eailway, for examnl which but for ' The Press ' would never have been heard of in public. But when it comes to the fact of Mr. Moorhouse's popularity having been increased by the writing in this journal, we desire respectfully to ask ' The Lyttelton Times,' on what they ground this assertion. Is it on the election for Akaroa once Mr. Morehouse's stronghold? Is it O n the dignified position of Mr. Ward, identified in the public mind as the subservient supporter of the Superintendent in the Provincial Council, at the bottom of the poll in Lyttelton ? Do they gather Mr. Moorhouses's increased popularity from the Christchurch election ? or the Lyttelton meeting ? or the Timaru meeting ? We remember Mr. Cobden, once in the early days of the Anti-Corn Law League, asking the Tories, who boasted that the people were with them, —" What evidence do you want that the people are against you? Do you want to be tossed in a blanket ?" So it is with ' The Lyttelton Times.' Wrapped up in the vanity of men who have long regarded their own journal as the dictator of the political opinions of the community ; —trading on the reputation of really able writing which they once displayed, but which they have long since lost; arrogating to themselves by implication the title of the only " writers of reputation" in the Province, these gentlemen will no doubt one day awake to the unpleasant conviction that in a newspaper no connection however large, or commercial standing however well established, will ever make up for vacillation in opinion, feebleness in expression, and disinclination to deal honestly with the subjects on which the public is for the time interested. We do not say ' The Lyttelton Times' is paid for its silence, but we do say that, if it were paid it could not exercise a more cautious abstinence than it does in dealing with local grievances, or a more scrupulous and nervous timidity in criticising them.

It appears moreover from the article in question, that' The Press' waa founded for the purpose of bringing Mr. Fitz Gerald before the notice 'of the electors as a fitter man for Superintendent than Mr. Moorhouse. ' The Times ' has changed its opinion. It formerly sneered at us for not saying the truth at once, that we were established for commercial purposes alone, as a speculation. Now, however we are actuated by loftier ideas. The outlay in setting on foot a new paper has been solely, it appears, to make Mr. FitzGerald Superintendent. Well, considering that Mr. FitzGerald might have been Superintendent without trouble or opposition for the last four years, and that the sole obstacle to his return now has been his refusal to stand ; —considering, as we are informed, that on his first landing he declined to stand even it' Mr. Moorhouse were to resign in his favour: the idea of starting a newspaper to return him, is a very improbable, though a complimentary suggestion. But when 'The Lyttelton Times' says the public think this, they should have written their sentence as follows—" We have constantly endeavoured to persuade the public that Mr. FitzGerald, though he says he does not, really only wants to be Superintendent again, that he is a man who says one thing but means another ; and Aye have therefore said, 'The Press' was established to help him to office. But the public who are thoroughly acquainted with this gentleman's character have habitually laughed at us tor so foolish an insinuation. And though the result has been belied by Mr. FitzGerald's refusal to stand. even if returned without opposition, we repent the slander because we have a feminine predilection loi having the last word. ,.