The Hastings Standard Published Daily. MONDAY, MAY 4, 1896. THE PRESS ASSOCIATION.

Hastings Standard, Issue 7, 4 May 1896, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily.

MONDAY, MAY 4, 1896. THE PRESS ASSOCIATION.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrongs that need resistance, For the future in the distance, And the fjood that we can do.

The action of the Directors of the Press- Association in demand in# an entrance-fee of £SOO for the Standaiw is being taken up in otlieK quarters, and the action of the Chairman of Directors is condemned on all hands. If it be true, and v,-e have no reason to doubt- it, that the Association offered to admit a daily paper in a town larger than Hastings for the sum of <£so, though another daily paper in the town was already in the Association, then we maintain we arc justly entitled to an explanation from the Directors as to the real reason of us being asked to contribute ten times that amount. We are thankful for the expression of sympathy we have received from other journals, all, by the nay, members of the Association, and a few quotations from their remarks may not be out of place. The Grey River Argus goes fully into the question of the exorbitant charge, and concludes a stirring article as follows :—" Although we are part proprietors in the Association we cannot uphold a proceeding so utterly unfair, and even impolitic. It is a flagrant violation of all the rules under which the. Association has hitherto worked. Apart even from that, it is a decided imposition, and is done solely in the interests of the Napier papers — of which there are three —one morning and two evening. We can only say that if the Association is going to be run on such lines its downfall is not far remote. There seems to be no reason whatever in the action of the Board of Directors on this occasion. We sincerely hope that in the interests of justice and fair play, they will see their way to recede from the position they have taken up in this matter, which is opposed to all fairness and business principles. The ac-t is decidedly arbitrary and must originate entirely in selfish motives. And we can only say that if such influencesare allowed to dominate the conduct and control of the Press Association the sooner a new organisation is established on different lines the b^iur."

The Napier Evening News also take -; up the cudgels on our behalf, and says " We are credibly inform, d that every obstacle was placed in ±e way of the proprietors, and when it --

remembered that the Chairman of Directors is the proprietor of our local evening contemporary, it will be seen that the attitude he took up as to the establishment of a paper at Hastings was not altogether disinterested. In the first place, to demand £SOO from a newspaper published at Hastings is nothing short of levying blackmail, and we strongly urge our Hastings contemporary to lay the whole of the facts before Parliament the only court of appeal in such a case. The amount charged to the Evening News was £3OO, and we think that had a sum of £l5O been demanded from the Hastings newspaper, it 'would have been sufficiently large, if not too large. That an irresponsible body should have the power to levy blackmail on a newspaper in the way it has been levied in the case under notice is altogether

wrong." The editor of the Pahiatua Ilc-rald, a journal noted for its fairness in criticism, and a journal that has more than once defended the Press Association from attack, now finds fault with the action of the Directors. In the course of an article it is said : —" The present Chairman of the Association is the proprietor of the Napier Telegraph, and that fact probably has more than a little to do with the fixing of such a prohibitive price. Nov,-, as members of the Association, we want to know what right the Chairman of the Association lias to hold out for such a fee as must prevent papers from becoming attached to the Association, and thus deprive those already members of the shave of prolits that would accrue from the increased membership and entrance fee. The. annual meeting of the Association is to be held shortly, and we know a few newspaper proprietors who will want some information on the point. Already the Association is threatened with legislative interference, and here we have another handle given to its enemies. At the annual meeting an explanation will certainly be due from Mr Knowles." From the above we wish our readers to draw their own conclusions.