The Hastings Standard Published Daily. THURSDAY, OCT. 8, 1896. THE COPYRIGHT TELEGRAMS COMMITTEE.

Hastings Standard, Issue 141, 8 October 1896, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily.

THURSDAY, OCT. 8, 1896. THE COPYRIGHT TELEGRAMS COMMITTEE.

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

The report of the Copyright Telegrams Committee contains the statement that while eight years ago in the town of Hastings, Hawke's Bay, £IOO was demanded as entrance fee for a daily paper, during the present year an entrance fee of £'->OO was demanded for a daily paper in the same place. The discrepancy between the two sums requires a more satisfactory explanation than that already given, and as the manager of the Association failed to give evidence as to why that enormous amount was charged we must take it for granted that there is a special reason why the Standard should be singled out to pay a larger fee than asked from any country paper in the colony. We hope Mr Knowles and his fellow directors of the Monopolistic Association are satisfied with the report presented. There are some closefisted conservative people in the colony who fancy New Zealand was made specially for their benefit and that others who seek to obtain a livelihood in the country are interlopers who must be crushed out at the first opportunity. This niggardly greedy class invariably seek to obtain their ends by securing monopolies ; but the temper of the people of New Zealand is against any form of monopoly, more especially when it assumes the form of a close corporation. The climatic conditions of New Zealand will not admit of anv trusts, rings or leagues finding continued sustenance ; sooner or later such things when they exist are discovered and speedily rooted out. The Tress Association may not come under the strict definition of a monopoly, but that it is a close corporation few will doubt. Its very title seems a misnomer, for the control is not with the subscribers but with a few, who run the show according to their own lights. The Association gets no special coneesoioue from the Telegraph Depart-

merit, but there s a trifling sum of £'26,120, lost to the colony through giving the Press cheap rates of telegrams, while the " midnight cable service," entails a heavy loss to the department. Each taxpayer of the colony is asked to pay very nearly a shilling a year in order that the newspapers may supply news at a cheap rate. So far as inland telegrams are concerned there may be some justification for this sacrifice of revenue, but why should there be any loss over the midnight cable service ? Let the Telegraph Department stiffen the cost of this service and the mighty rulers of the Press Association genuflect before Parliament and institute reforms to save themselves. A monster of this description can be killed only by striking a blow at a vital part,and the midnight cable service is the very heart of the Press Association. The report says " The Committee is of opinion that the abolition of the prohibitive entrance fees asked by the Association would lead to a number of papers joining it, and would also bo an encouragement to other newspapers to start within the colony." " Encourage other newspapers to start " is a line gospel to preach to the Press Association, but the effect on that body will be somewhat similar to that exhibited by a bull when confronted with the "proverbial red rag. We are quite certain that the close boarded fence of high entrance fees which conceals the Press Association from the juvenile newspapers must be | hurled down or considerably lowered, I and if this happens the Standard shall not have suffered in vain.