THE TYRANNY AND THE PRESS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1242, 26 September 1911, Page 6

THE TYRANNY AND THE PRESS.

WAfID GOVERNMENT INDICTED. AS AN ENEMY OP POPULAR LIBERTY. IV. THE BOYCOTT, THE SUBSIDISED PRESS, AND "INSPIRATION." Administrative abuses moro deadly than bad legislation—The advertising boycott—The subsidised and' semiofficial press-Semi-official press liable to become either feeblo or scurrilous— The Press Association—Sir J. G. Ward's secret "Dreadnought" telegram—Humiliating incident. [By Juryman'.] Whatever may bo the case with, individuals, it is certain that the majority of men find an extremo djffisulty m long resisting constant temptation And when the, temptation comes to them in the shape-of honour and emolument tliar are too often ready to profess the ■ dominant opinions, and abandon, not '■ indeed their belief, but the external ; .marks,'by which that belief is made ■ public. Every man who takes this step is a- hypocrite; and every Government ■ which encourages this step to be taken ' js an abettor of hypocrisy and a creator of hypocrites. Well, therefore, may wo say, that when a Government holds out as a bait, that those who profess certain opinion:! sh-all enjoy certain privileges, it Plays the part of the tempter of old. anil, like the Evil One, basely offers the Rood things- of this world to him who will change his worship and deny his faith-Buckle's "History, of Civilisation," Chap. V. Most of our attention in the preceding articles has been occupied with attempts by the Government to innzzle the press by nieans of legislation. We now come to those more subtle and more effective endeavours to subdue and degrade tho newspapers by improper exercise of tho powcrs.of administration. Abuses of this kind, have done far moro harm to the press,and people of New'. Zealand than ;nny legislative measures. The extent of kheir' operations is- unknown. Their congenial haunt is the back stairs. Administrative abuses .aro far more difficult to than legislative wrongs. The miscreant who' puts , slow poison into his (victim's'food .is harder to deal with than itho ruffian .who ■o'*nly carries a bludgeon. , ' In .a sphere where ono cannot help suspecting'more than one can see, and where one is nevertheless bound not to harbour .any unjust suspicion, itis something of a relief to find oneself able to proceed upon 'the solid ground of reported Parliamentary proceedings.. (Hansard, Vol. 147, pages 879 and following.) ' '

.' The Taxpayers'. Money. On November 5,:1909,.Mr. K. A. Wright, member for Wellington South, moved in tho,House: / . .{'.'.""

V ■ That, in the opinion.of this House, : Government advertisements should bo ■. supplied to newspapers regardless _ of . their political convictions, with a view • only of socuring'tha best return to the ' taxpayers for the mouuy so expended. : It will be seen ou reference to Hansard of the date mentioned that this motion ,was defeated—actually, defeated—by 36 votes .to' IS. ■' Of course, 'it was a party division. '■','■ ' ' '■It was useless for Mr. Malcolm to stato in the plainest terms the incontrovertible truth that the moneys for Government advertisements arc trust moneys; and that no Government should be allowed to spend them for the advancement of its own .interests. It was of no avail for Mr. Hino to point out that, under the rule debarring any member from -voting on a matter in which ho.is financially interested, the position of the Ministers whose- holdings in the-"New Zealand Times)"' Company were ■: reyetvjed during the'debate '.was one for serious consideration. .."■ : '.- •, , . Tiie Dominion was, of course, the leadin" case of victimisation by Ministerial boycott, but Mr. Massey stated tliat tho "Manawatn Evening Standard," the "Ea.ngit.ikei Advocate," and. a Waikato paper had been punished in the same way simply became they were opposed to tho .Government. Contemptible Excuses. The argument upon which the defenders of this system of misappropriation of public funds seemed chielly to rely was that The Dominion was a recently-estab-lished paper, and would perhaps not livo very long. Hence, whatever its present circulation might be it would bo improper to place it on the samo footing .'as its older competitors. It did aot .seem to occur to these people that advertisements aro 'not intended for posterity, nor for antiquity, but for to-day. bir Joseph Ward tried to enlist sympathy by declaring that the object of Tiie Dominion was "to annihilate the 'Neiv Zealand Times'-and bring down the Government. That, of course, was Iris way of saying that The Dominion was opposed to'him politically, and'was in keen competition with another journal in which several members of the Ministry, happened to be arge shareholders. The Dominion and other newspapers remomitrated vigorously against the cynical disregard of elementary political morality disclosed by Parliament's rejection of tho motion. Tho paper which had been made the principal victim cf tho boycott- repeated its "frequent but never-answered challenge" calling on any proper authority to examine its' audited records and ascertain tho truth or otherwise of its assertion that its paid circulation was at least twice as great as that of the largest Ministerial journal in Wellington city or province. (Dominion, November G, 1909.) That challenge was never taken up; The boycott is still maintained, and The Dominion still keeps up its practice of publishing . the Government advertisements without payment. Every time it docs this it takes special care to remind its readers of tho.position. One branch of the public service—the Defenco Department, recently, under its new head — refused to conform to tho requirements of tho boycott. The' Subsidised Press, The- other side of tho boycott system is the thinly-disguised subsidising of; tho Ministerial press. What the city papers receive for Government advertising cannot bo supposed to affect in any way the poLicy of such large and wealthy proprieaTies, but with tho small country papers the cass is different. To many of them the Government patronage seems almost a necessity of their existence. Can their editors be expected to.incur such a risk? A fow—all honour to them —have been bold, and their papers have generally sur- j rived. Others, who were not baso, but merely average men, have acquiesced in j the condition of subservience. When Mr. Wright said, in support of his motion for the recognition of honest business principles, that if tho boycott -were continued there would arise in New Zealand "a reptile press —a. press that would simply follow any Government in power ra long as it was fed with Qovernment advertisements"—ho wns ipsa-kuig within the truth, for such a press already exists. Men who are influenced like the conductors of such papers cannot do. the best work of which they arc capable. A press thus injured is sure to suffer every \iiul of deterioration. The'pathology of the official and scrai-officinl press is n sad but instructive study. Germany, I suppose, offers the most complete and interesting sot of present-day examples. What lias done most to lower the professional standing of the journalist in Germany (according to an investigation made a few years ago) is-, the existence of the' semi-official, press —papers which simply write by order and do whatever the Government tell them. . The shades nnd gradations of this press are very fine, and its handling requires the greatest tact and skill. It is for that that the' Government Press Bureau exists, and the liead of it must know how to play upon it as a. pianist plays on a piano. At the head of this press stands the "Norddoutseho Allgoiiioine Zeitnng," or the "North German Gazette." That journal is semi-official, nakedly and unashamedly. Its' editors aro little better than Government functionaries. Its circulation is small—four or fivo thousand copies a. day a{ most ■—but its Government "communiques," mostly indicated by special type, are reproduced by'the other papers. ("Tho Gorman Proas as it is." "Glasgow Herald." July 3, 190G; quoted in Soil's Press Dictionary, 1507J

Feebleness of Official Newspapers. The partial atrophy thus diagnosed in tho rasi< of Ilia "North Gwman Ciazt-tto" lias developed to on extreme'in (lie "London Guzetto." Hero is Macaulay's account of its early days:— At tho close of his (Charles II's) reign, no newspaper was sutferod lu appear without his allowance; and liis allowance was given exclusively to the "London Gazette." Tho "London Gazette" came out only on Mondays and Thursdays. The contents generally were. « royal proclamation, two or three Tory addresses, notices of \<xo or three promotions, an account, of a skirmish between- the Imperial I roops unil tho Janissaries on the Danube, a description of a highwaymen, an announcement of it- grand cockfiglit between two persons of honour, and an advertisement offering a reward for a strayed dog. The whole made- up two pages of very moderate size. Whatever was communicated respecting matters of tho highest moment was communicated in the most meagro and formal style, ... Tho most important Farliamontary debates, the most important State trials were passed over in profound silence. (Macaulay's History, Chap. 3.) ' The "London Gazette" has long ceased to bo a newspaper in any proper sense of the term. It is now simply the vehicle for bankruptcy lists and the administrative announcements. The "M.Z. Gazette," imitated from it, affords this country a pathetic objectlesson (from tho historical-journalistic point' of view), showing that a Stato basis is even less to be desired for the press than for the Church. They' Wake up and Bite. When, official newspapers have not been dull and lifeless, they have usually been violent and scurrilous. "The Obscrvator," published under the patronage of the Court b£ Charles II to supply the comment . which was lacking in the "Gazotte," is an early example. This paper (says Macaulay) was edited by an old Tory pamphleteer named Koger Lestrange. Lestraugo . was by no means deficient in readiness and shrewdness; and his diction, though coarse, and disfigured by a mean and ilippant jargon which then pac-sed for wit in the green room and the tavern, was not without keenness and vigour. But his nature, at once ferocious aud ignoble, showed itself in ' every line that he ponned . . . From the malice. Df Lestrange tho grave was no hiding place and the house of mourning no sanctuary; (Macau- • lay's History, Chap. , iii.) In terms not unliko these, Addison complained of. the "Examiner," which . was conducted by that greatest of official journalists—Jonathan Swift. Even he, apparently, could not wholly escape the conditions which the laws of human nature impose upon the reptile press. It rouses itself from its ever-growing stupor, only to bite.

Those two evils of the semi-official press —dullness and scurrility—have been exhibited at different times, and iji several degrees by the New Zealand variety of the institution, but as this is a matter where exact demonstration is impossible, I shall leave my readers to tkeir own judgments. Sir Joseph Ward delivered a complimentary speech about New Zealand newspapers into a gramaphone in London. But if by any exercise of imagination he can be supposed to drop for one moment the customary mask, and disclose tlie real spirit of his party's press policy, ho could not put it more truly than in the Scriptural terms, "Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life." Tho Press Association, In yet another way. .the hand of the Government stretches athwart the channels of political .information. The Press Association, protected by an Act of Parliament, enjoys special privileges. Most of its correspondents are men in regular employment on the staffs of daily papers, and in several instances of which public complaint has been made the reports sent out by them have'been more remarkable for indulgence towards the Ministry.-than for accuracy. Thei-account •ot Sir ■ Joseph Ward's departure for London'in June, 1909 (.sent out by tho "New Zealand Times"), and a misleading message about Earotongan affairs in July, 1911 ("Auckland Star"), come readily to mind. A one-sided account of tho Supreme Court proceedings in T. K. Macdonald's rlischargo from custody (May 19, 1911), and an inadequate and jumbled report of Mr. Masscy's Wellington speech, July 6, 1911, emanated from tho Association's headquarters, and were officially explained as due to inadvertence. It must bo borne in mind that nearly all tho newspaper proprietors of New Zealand are membors of tho Association, and that its rules brescribo th» strictest impartiality in alf reports. If an institution so strong and wealthy is not exempt from the miasma of administrative influence, how shall wo keep our suspicions within bounds?

A Secret Telegram. ■ Tho secret influence of the Government, upon tho press is not confined to the association and ■ the semi-official newspapers. The "Gift Dreadnought" is 'still so fresh in' the public mind- that tho following copy of a telegram needs no explanation:— March 22, 1009, Wellington. : Editors of all papers where messago about battleship is • sent. I (Strictly confidential.) I have sent you an invportant tclogram for publication in connection with the British Navy. I wouW liko to impress upon you that the situation is much graver than is generally supposed or bos be<?u published, and the offer that the Govornrrfent has made is one which we know will greatly help Great Britain in the present crisis .chiefly by virtue of the moral effect, and as illustrating to Germany that the British Dominions will rally round tho Mother Country in the time of imminent danger, as is apparent at present in such a situation. I have felt that narrow conside-ra- . -tion of pounds shillings and pence should, yield to our plain duty to. Great Britain lvhere national existence is threatened, as the matter .transcends party, and therefore feol it my duty to tell you confidentially our motive and desire to avoid publication of anything alarming, and hence have made this strictly confidential.— J. G. Ward. I have carefully studied the Appendix to Hansard. Vol." 147, which contains tho report of tho informal meeting of Parliament held on- June 7, 1809, when tho late, Mr. T. E. Taylor read tho above precious document, but I will spo.ro my readers the recital of further • details of an incident so humiliating—with its sham Imperialism and hollow show of loyalty— to. their Prime Minister and, through him, to themselves. Disingenuous Confidences; I dp not see how anybody of ordinary intelligence can' read that report and the official documents comprised in it without coming to the conclusion stated by Mr. Taylor and Mr. Anderson, the me.mber for Mataura, namely, that tho hint of secret information possessed by tho Government was entirely without justification; The telegram was concocted for the purpose, of inducing the newspapers to express approval of the unconstitutional and unnecessary action of committing the country to an expenditure of two or four millions of money without consulting Parliament. Mr. A. W. Hop:, who retired from tho Ministry a few weeks after the Dreadnought offer, afterwards expressed strong disapproval of that action. Ho said in the House on October 15, 1909: The reason why' I acquiesced In that extraordinary proposal was becauso it was placed before myself ami other members of the Cabinet as being a matter of great urgency—that a terrible crisis had arisen, and that there was something mysterious, something terrific occurring in another part of the world, and' that wo must come to tho rescue of Old England. In tho face of that, what was one to do ? (Hansard, Vol. 117, p. 2-18.) And only a few weeks ago (August i, 1911), Mr. Hogg described (he Dreadnought offer as n thing dono in a moment of panic and'due to a "flagrant Tory falsehood," the origin of which ho did not know. Ho declared, "We wcro mii!"d," but ho did not answer tho repeated question, "-Who misled you!-" Sir Joseph AVard, in one of his speeches at the Parliamentary conference, stated that he ordered tho telegram to !>o sent to all tho papers outside Wellington! irrespective of parti, but theie seeme to

have been some doubt whether they all received it., lie also said (referring to the newspaper editors throughout the country): 1 have had to communicate with them confidentially on wore than one occasion in my position as a Minister of tho Crown. Just what 1 feared. And I wonder if any of those confidential communications were of tho same nature as the Dreadnought secret telegram. How many of them were likely to create a wrong impression, manufacture an unreal public opinion, stifle a reasonable criticism, or obtain a semblance of popular approval for an improper action? (To bo continued.)