Marlborough Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1856.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2018, 22 November 1886, Page 2

Marlborough Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1856.

Some time "ago, when complaining of the neglect of the Press Association to forward us certain items of news which had appeared elsewhere, we intimated that we would at a future time givo our readers some idea of the kind of stuff we received from the Press Association, stuff for which we are, it appears, ex-, pected to pay but which we decline 1 to publish, judging it to be of no public interest. Without naming the dozens of telegrams we have ceived from different coastal ports, reporting the sailing of steamers for the next port, and giving full passenger lists for that port, here are a few samples of what that extraordinary individual, the Press Asso ciation Agent, considers news : - The Wellington office' telegraphs -that,- in the Gazette, “ Ilis Excellency the Governor notifies that he has been instructed to recognise Carl Ludwig Bahl as Acting-Con-sul for Germany, at Sydney, for all the Australasian colonies. ’ Next, the Auckland agent, a great offender by the way, telegraphs that “The Government revenue schooner has arrive! from a cruise, and that she is to be dismantled and laid up.” We might complain tint the telegram is too meagre; many, possibly, would like to know the name of the revenue schoonor, her commander, the number of her crow, where she had been cruising, why she was to be dismantled and laid up and where 1 !???? 1 ? But your Press Association Agent is not paid by the job—we don’t think the poor devil is paid at all—and he, therefore, takes out a heap of his revenge on the public by taxing the imaginative endurance of newspaper readers to the uttermost. But we spare our readers as much as possible. Next, from the Auckland Agent again, we learn that in a Fiji lawsuit (no further particulars beyond one .in* telligible name) the decision has been given in favor of the plaintiffs ; that the Auckland Bowling Club has joined the New Zealand Bowling Association ; that a cutter “ built by Bailey for the Oamaru Naval Brigade, was sent South by the Mararoa”; that l( Sir George Grey arrived in town to-day, and has not yet got over a severe cold contracted during the session ; that “ three unemployed parties on the Municipal Belief contracts have notified the City Engineer that they will abandon their contracts unless the price is raised;” that “ the Maryr from Melbourne ha 3 brought; the stone for the Calliope Graving Dock”; that a certain vessel (unknown in the Colony) has arrived and that “she encountered heavy weather and lost the long boat, besides having her bulwark’s ini jured” &c., &c., ad infinitum. Now, all these items may be of local in terest at Auckland ; but we wonder what our brother journalists in the Colony would say if we telegraphed all round that the Spring Creek Cricket Club had joined the Marlborough Cricket Association; that Mr “ Tinker” Smith had seit a consignment of pickled herrings, from his fish'.curing establishment, at Bulwer, to Kennedy Macdonald, of Wellington; that Mr Conolly M.11.R. came from Picton to day and was suffering from an attack of hospitality and courtesy ; that the Dashwood Pass navvies wanted another shilling a day; that the s.s, Waihi had ju3t landed the new retorts for the gas-works ; that the s.s. Neptune encountered heavy weather in the Straits and lost her donkey; or that Cr Douslin addressed the burgesses in Ewart’s Hall —all of which would be matters; some of them, of novelty, some of them, of interest, to us. But we could not expect their publication in Auckland newspaper to imerove —but then, of course, we shouldn’t be fools enough to send them out, and the Auckland papers wouldn’t be fools enough to publish them if we did. So we needn’t speculate on that point. The next telegram, we pick up, quite in a haphazard way, informs U 3 that “ a woman died suddenly at her residence to-day”; that “ the report of the Stark Purchase Commission was to day sent to His Excellency the Governor”; that “Mr Justice Richmond returned to Wellington from Blenheim”; that “ the Minister for Mines returned from the South” ; that “ G. S- Cooper, Under Secretary for the Colony, and A. W. Brown, Mayor of Wellington, returned from Australia” ; that a Wesleyan minister in the course of a speech haT expressed the opinion that t( the Church in New Zealand would never accomplish her work nati. the whole of the pulpits were filled by native-born ministers, and had made reference to the spread of Christianity during the past 50 years, and had expressed the opin ion that, so long as Britishers clung to the Bible, so long would the British nation be the foremost in the world.” These latter telegrams are all from the Wellington office, so the “Manager”cannot shelter himself behind the sins of an Agent. Wo are, of course, very sorry to hear of the sudden death of any poor womm —a wife and mother, it may be—but, really, it is too much to ask newspapers to pay for such information as an item of news and public interest; the telegrams with

reference to the movements of certain notables are of still less interest,- whilst the opinions of any parson now-a-days, a'though they may be very right and proper in their way, become an infliction when they have to be pi id for by newspaper proprietors. Besides, there is nothin" strikingly original in the opinioi s tel -graphed. There is still before us a heap of Association drivel for which we have not spice to refer, and for which we have been compelled to pay several pounds. The telegrams in that heap are probably more idiotic in • heir character than thoso wo have quoted. And still it seems that we are expected to pay for this stuff, for, the other day, we refused to pay for half a column or more of literary slush, sent us from the Wellington ollice, and this is the reply we received from the individual callinghimself the “Manager’ — “ I quite disagree with you as to the value of the telegram you return, and I warn youthat refusal of te'egrums is against the rules of the Association. I have told you this before. If you object to a message you can afterwards apply to the manager for a refund, but any refusal of messages will be followed by intimation to the Telegraph Department that we shall decline to be responsible for collect ” messages addressed to you. The effect will be that none will be forwarded to you. I, am, &c.” This is very funny; it is also very impertinent. We don’t pay the ‘Manager’ of the Association tojjudge what sha'l or shali not go into our paper ; that is a privilege we reserve for ourselves. We don’t wish to adopt the hifalutin attitude assumed by the “ so wo shall not lt warn ” him of what we intend doing. But we certainly shall no longer pay for messages that we consider useless for our purposes. At one time, under the management of Mr E- T, Gillon, and later, under the management of Mr G ;orge Humphries, the Press Associatiou business was ably conducted, but under the pretent management —on second thought we will not say what we think of the present management.