IN THE NAME OF ECONOMY

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 487, 21 April 1909, Page 6

IN THE NAME OF ECONOMY

During the General Election contest in November last it became our unpleasant duty to direct public attention to a grave abuse of power on the part of the Government directly affecting the public interest. The occasion in question was-the refusal of Ministers to advertise the polling. places for tho : election in ; certain country papers. In two*cases at least— those of the Rangitikei Advocate and the Manawatu Standard—tho papers boycotted were the leading journals in their respective electorates, and the effect of the Government's' action, but for the conduct of the proprietors, would have been to keep ,from such of the public as subscribed to the papers the information necessary to enable them to exercise their duty as citizens on polling day. At the time we commented on this gross abuse of authority on the part of the Government, which was. accentuated by the fact that the papers in question had ; been ; outspoken critics of Ministerial maladministration. 'It was certainly a curious coincidence that these particular papers should .have been selected for this petty but unprincipled action, while many other journals with much smaller circles of readers were not so penalised. With some reluctance we have to again direct attention to the misuse by Ministers of the powers- entrusted to them. We refer to the matter with reluctance because it affects ourselves. But the principle involved is too important ;to be • passed ovef. _ Shortly after The Dominion commenced publication ,in\ 1907 application was made to the Government, in the usual way, for,'the State advertisements concorning • matters .of interest to the public resident in'the district covered by the chief portion of the' 1 circulation of the. paper., Our request was evaded by means of non-committal stereotyped forms of reply, which would, make interesting reading to the public, for' a period of nine months. .It took the. Government nine months to make up its; mind that ,Thb Dominion should*not receivo Govern-, ment advertisements.' Why 1 The' reason then, given is not the intention to<increaso tho number of,papers air. ready on the list." ' WhyV 'We .have waited another nine months to discover tho answer to this further question. Wo are told now that it is for reasons of economy. No one'can object to the .Government practising economy. Wo ourselves have incurred the wrath of the Prime Minister on many ■ occasions for urjging on him the need of economy in-the administration of public affairs.-

But what'' is the "economy'' now, being practised by, the Government'in connection with State advertisements? They refuse these advertisements to a paper which has, freely exercised its criticising; their, act's :;of .maladministration, and give them to a paper: which, has little more than half its number of readers, but which; possesses . in. ■'Ministerial eyes the inestimable virtue of extending to the .Government a slavish support in and out of season. Would, any private business man controlling' a railway service call it "economy" to refuse advertisements , relating ■ to the running of trains on his line to a paper .with a circulation of, say, 20,000 copies daily, and give them instead to a paper with less than 12,000 of circulation ? ' Would he regard this as likely-to increase the traffic on his railway and, make it pay—would the shareholders of a compa.ny approve the action of their manager if he did a thing of this -sort ] Would they regard it as a sufficient ■' excuse for the consequent loss of revenue if he put forward the explanation that the paper with the larger circulation had ventured to criticise his administration with a view to improving it in the interests of .the' shareholders J Would they consider that he had any right to vent his personal spleen on tho paper in question at the expense of the shareholders, whose interests it desired to serve, or would they regard his action as a grave dereliction of ' duty, and treat him accordingly 2 There'. can be no doubt whatever as to their attitude in the matter.. And what right has the Government to discriminate in tho manner stated above and misspend tho money of the people so as to punish its critics and to pander to its political supporters ? Who can believe for ono moment its flimsy pretext of "economy," in face of the fact that the circulation of; The Dominion offers so much greater a chance of return for. the money spent than the circulation of the paper upon which the Government proposes to continue to shower its favours 1 We have not touched upon the aspect of the matter which involves the right of all. sections of the public to havo reasonable opportunity of becoming acquainted with all State announcements. We have contented ourselves with exposing the hollowness and insincerity, of the' plausible excuse put forward by Ministers for their boycott of this paper in the matter of Government advertisements. We shall take care that our readers do not suffer from the refusal of the Government to subordinate their own political interests to the interests of the country. Such Government advertisements as are likely to bo of concern to our readers will be published at our own cost, but ; in view of the serious possibilities opened up by. the Government's' grossly improper discrimination in its conduct of public affairs' against a paper to which it is hostile, we shall keep the matter before the public as one requiring their attention, in the manner adopted in'bur' advertising columns today, Word tho mattes oua merely. ul.

fecting the financial loss or . gain involved in, t the Government's. action, wo should have'preferred to-have ignored'-the potty measures resorted to. to prejudice the interests of the paper. But the principle involved compels attention and comment, whero silent contempt would bo more to, our liking.