The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, NOVEMBER 21, 1901.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 268, 21 November 1901, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, NOVEMBER 21, 1901.

'I HE EARTHQUAKES. Tub enterprise of the New Zealand newspapers has one serious drawback —too much is made of things which would be all the better for not being made so prominent. Take, for instance, the recent earthquakes in the South. The newspapers throughout the colony teem with graphic descriptions of the scenes, so much so that many people of an impressionable disposition are quite ready at any time to declare that they fancy they feel a shock, the impression left on their minds by the reading of pabulum in regard to earthquakes being so marked. But the mischief is not there—that is a feeling which can soon be overcome The trouble is that in places distant from the colony such an exaggerated idea is given of the destruction wrought. No object is gained by such an improssion going abroad, and it means a distinct loss to the colony, for hundreds of people who would be visiting New Zealand this summer are now' likely to abandon their intention. When the Tarawera eruption occurred it w’as made so much of by the New Zealand papers that the impression became worldwide that the colony was apt any day to be destroyed by burning lava. That yiew is to this day held by many in Australia, people whom it would be thought would know better, but the worst of it is they generally have at hand some of the descriptions given at the time or some of the highly-colored illustrations that were made. The Cheviot disaster is sure to be made much of by the enterprising illustrated papers, and thoso papers will be sent far and wide, together with the mass of letterpress description. What is the effect of that likely to bo ? It is not hard to foresee. People at at a distanoe will not understand that the Cheviot is only a small portion of the colony, and that travellers have very little to be alarmed at, and this want of discernment will mean a substantial money loss to the colony. Everyone who comes to the colony on a holiday and not as a competitor in trade means so much direct gain to the colony, and therefore it is a pity that the papers should by their energy create an impression that will permanently affect the colony as a place for the holiday-making toiirists to visit.