GAGGING THE PRESS.

Evening Star, Issue 8774, 15 March 1892, Page 1

GAGGING THE PRESS.

Apparently the Ministerial fiat haa gone forth that the Evening Stab and its readers are to be boycotted. We have committed the unpardonable sin. of opposing the policy of the Cabinet, and revenge is taken by the determination to withhold Government advertisements from our columns. Intimation to this effect was received recently from the Mines Department; and we were officially informed a day or two ago by the local Lands Office that instructions have been received “ from Wellington not to advertise in the Stab any more,” but only in the ‘ Times,’ ‘ Globe,’ and ‘ Witness.’ The excuse possibly may be that publication in one evening paper is sufficient ; but the motive is transparent, and the action taken is entirely on a par with the contemptible tactics which throughout characterise this very Liberal Administration. The independence of the Press in New Zealand is a thorn in the side of Ministers —a standing menace to the maintenance of their reign of misrule. Only fifteen papers out of 115 are said to give them any support, and the 100 are to be made to feel the weight of the Ministerial hand. It is evident that if they had their way the freedom of the Press would be stamped out, and newspapers not of the “ right color ” suppressed. As things are, fortunately, to do that they are powerless. They may for a time, at the public expense, keep going ricketty organs which advocate what* ever they choose to propose, and besmear them with fulsome adulation; but they cannot silence the intelligent voice of the country, nor succeed, either by bribery or intimidation, in gaining over to their side a Press

distinctly hostile because it realises danger to the Colony in their policy and conduct. As for ourselves, we are in a position to regard with entire indifference the withholding of Government advertisements. We should have been silent on the subject but that the public interests are, we conceive, largely concerned, not only as to the vicious principle on which Ministers are acting, but in their ignoring, especially in regard to notices from the Land Office, the paper which has by far the largest circulation in the City and suburbs—we may say, indeed, in the provincial district. The object of advertising, it may be presumed, is to give the greatest publicity to the advertisement: in the case of the disposal of land, to secure that the knowledge may be widely spread of what lands are open for application. Ministers pervert the public funds at their disposal for this’proper purpose to purely partisan ends. Do they suppose that public opinion will long tolerate such gross misfeasance, or that papers notoriously paid to do their more than equivocal work will command either respect or influence 1

It will be noted that in our advertising columns to-day appears a notice by the Commissioner of Crown Lands of pastoral licenses open for application at the Dunedin Office, being licenses of runs offered at auction and not disposed of. This notice is inserted without official authority, such authority having been refused in the terms quoted above. It is not our intention, however, to allow our readers, who number many thousands every evening, to be without proper information as to the sale and disposal of Crown lands or other important matters which may form the subject of Government advertisements. At the direct loss, therefore, involved in the space occupied, we publish this particular notice, and shall in future transfer from the columns of our morning contemporary such Government advertisements as we consider, in the interests of the public, should have circulation in the Stab. Our constituents shall not suffer because we have incurred the displeasure of the powers that be. The present Ministry aptly illustrate, indeed, what Shakespeare said as to “men armed with a little brief authority.” In the confidence—which possibly they may find misplaced—that they have a majority in the House which will support them through thick and thin, they appear to have altogether lost their heads.

The flagrant abuse of patronage in the public service and in nominations to land boards and other local bodies is notorious. The sole qualification required for any appointment is to be of the “right color,” and citizens of standing, repute, and experience are shunted from positions of trust and responsibility in favor of obscure partisans. The attempt is, in truth, being made to Americanise our institutions in the very worst sense of the word. The caucus is already instituted in the National Liberal Association, and the next move is, if it be found at all practicable, to muzzle the Press. In certain of the States newspapers inconveniently outspoken have been bought up, bribed, or the staff and proprietary summarily disposed of. Ministers, we might presume, regret that the latter method is not available here. Their powers, fortunately, are limited to the control of the Government advertising, and they intend it to be understood that this will be given in consideration of support or judicious silence as to their misdeeds. However insignificant a paper may be, however limited its circulation, if it goes in red-hot for Ministers, it will be subsidised out of the public purse. Business principles are to be entirely ignored in the matter. Local officers are no longer to be allowed to adver-

list' where they know tho best value is to Le got for the money by the greatest publicity being secured, but, under instructions from Wellington,mustconline themselves to Ministerial organs, where such exist \ tho extent of the circulation lacing hold of no account. Thus do Ministers hope to convert to the purposes of the Great Liberal Party some of tho 100 papers now in opposition, and to materially injure where they cannot influence by bribes.