THE GOVERNMENT AND THE PRESS.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9444, 16 June 1896, Page 4

THE GOVERNMENT AND THE PRESS.

Corrupt and despotic Governments have always shown a hatred for a free Press, and the present New Zealand Ministry are no exception to the rule. It will be remembered that the Hon. John M'Kenzie actually introduced a Bill which would have made it a penal offence to publish a leading article, or even a letter of the most harmless nature from a correspondent, without " disclosing in print at its foot the true and full name and address of its writer." The luckless proprietor, editor, printer, and publisher of any paper which ventured to print a letter complaining of dust in the Papanui road, or of a mud puddle on the belt, would each and all have been liable to a penalty of £50 if this precious Bill had become law, and if the name of the writer of the letter had not been printed at the foot. The Parliamentary returns published last session showed how Ministers misused their power and misspent the taxpayers' money by giving the bulk of the Government advertisements to papers that support the Ministry, quite regardless of their value as advertising mediums. More recently Mr. Seddon has laid down the dictum that it is grossly reprehensible for the papers to publish details of a law case if it happens to reflect unfavourably on a " Liberal " Minister. . All these ideas are so utterly opposed to modern notions of the liberty of the people, and of the freedom of the Press which is so inextricably bound up with that liberty, that we were at a loss to conjecture where the Ministry had got them from. An article by Mr C. Leonard in the New Review sheds some light on the subject. There is a Press law in the Transvaal, it appears, which must thoroughly commend itself to Messrs Seddon and M'Kenzie, even if they are not actually indebted to it for the principles which they are seeking to apply in New Zealand. Under Mr. Kruger's Act only the newspapers which support the Government are allowed to comment freely on public affairs. Those journals not | only receive a Government subsidy,' but it is expressly laid down that they are exempt from the Press law which : gags all independent papers. As for,? the subsidising, this was openly de-' fended by the State Secretary, who said with the utmost candour that " as soon as journals wrote in favour of the Government they became unpopular, and therefore it was just to compensate them V .We can now understand the principle on which the Seddon Government have given the largest share of the public advertising to the papers with the least influence and'the smallest circulation; Krugerism and Seddonisb. evidently have a good deal in common.