The Marlborough Press. SATURDAY, JULY 22, 1865.

Marlborough Press, Volume VI, Issue 58, 22 July 1865, Page 2

The Marlborough Press. SATURDAY, JULY 22, 1865.

In noticing the recent change which has taken place in the name and management of our contemporary the Marlborough News (late Wairau Record), we should have been better pleased could wo have complimented its editor on the improvement that might reasonably be expected to follow the alteration. But this is impossible ; the alteration iu anything beyond name and management not being calculated to secure respect or recommend the News to tho general public as a reliable source of information, especially on subjects that immediately, or even remotely, affect the one great question lately dignified by it as “ A just and glorious cause.” In dealing with any subject, the first consideration of its editor evidently is, how can this be made to bear on our one great question, or assist in accomplishing the very end and aim of our journalistic existance. Having duly considered in all its bearings this weighty point, he next proceeds, with indiarubber-liko facility, to twist facts into fictions, and by a plentiful use of Blenheim colouring matter, to make out a case to suit the tastes of his supporters. But fortunately for those inter-est-'d in arriving at tho truth, he greatly overdoes the thing, and if our readers are not provided with spectacles, stamped “ Eyes’s patent, 1800,” or those recently patented by the member for Clarence, his statements bear on the face of them flaws, that hardly need pointing out to those who are au fait to the character and objects of his supporters. We do not blame the editor of tho News for acting thus, because we are fully cogni. sant of the fact that ho will do all he can to make tho paper a paying speculation. But we do blamo him for not exonerating himself from a charge of willful misstatements, by giving tho names of those on whose authority he published such articles as that in his issue of the Bth, headed “ Disgraceful proceedings at Picton,” and his leader of tho 15th.

The falsehood of tho statements contained in the first we shall not condescend to contradict ; first because the editor not having given those fuller particulars which he promised in his next issue, has doubtless found out that he has been hoaxed ; and secondly, because all that occurred was witnessed by

a large number of persons (many of them strangers to the politics of Marlborough), whose testimony would carry more weight than an editor’s infuriated informants, or partial and bombastic “ Own Reporter,” who is generally supposed to have been engaged by the hour: his ink, Blenheim coloring matter of the brightest tint, being supplied by his employers. With the knowledge we possess of his proclivities, our only wonder is that the report was not much more highly colored. Much good may it do him and his friends of the coalition. In dealing with the article of the 15th, wo pass over the inferences it contains, because the truth of the inferences depend on the correctness of the facts. We can afford also, to contemn the rodomontade of the editor’s; “tho avowed advocate of the general interests of the province,” of his “ strange inconsistency of the Superintendent’s conduct,” of his “duly impressed with a sense of exercising arbitrary authority,” of his “which we regard as a mere pretext for continuing the system of wrong and injustice to this part of the province,’’ of his “ gross injustice, and inconsistency on the part of his Honor.” We look upon these fine flowing sentences as so much bunkum, harmless though laughable, and jog on to the pith of his statement, which is, that the Superintendent lias paid to the Picton Town Board 25 per cent, on the amount of the rates collected (which was promised by Mr. Carter’s Government), whilst he refuses to pay anything to the Blenheim Town Board. Now, our readers would hardly suppose that such a statement could be made, or such an article written, unless there was a little truth at the bottom ; but nevertheless there is not a grain of truth in the whole mixture, which we undertake to prove by a statement of facts that can be verified.

On or .about the 10th of June, 18G4, Mr John Godfrey moved “That the Council request the Superintendent to place on the Estimates for the ensuing year such an amount of money as will be sufficient to supplement the rates levied under any local improvement act or acts that are, or may become in force in this province before tho close of the ensuing year; the supplementary grant to he paid quarterly, and to he equal in amount to the rates under such act.” This motion he withdrew on the Government undertaking to pay, out of the sum of £SOO voted for by-roads, a sum equal to 25 per cent., in accordance with tho terms of the motion : that is, on tho amount actually paid during the quarter. Nothing has been paid to the Picton Town Board, in accordance with this arrangement, as the following certificates show: — Picton, 17th July, 1885.

Sir—ln reply to your enquiry, I beg to state that no sums have been handed over to the Board of Works in Picton, in supplement of rates collected under the act, since my appointment to the office of Provincial Auditor, in July, 1803. I have, &c., J. It. GarP, Provincial Auditor. Ilis Honor the Superintendent, Marlborough. Picton, July 17, 18(35. I hereby certify that no sum has been paid as a supplement to the rates of Picton, from the Ist of July, 1803, to the present time, and that the amount paid to mo as rates during the same period is £BO4. James Alexander, Secretary to Board, Picton. The Chairman of the Board also received the following letter (a copy of which, sent to the Blenheim Board, the editor of the News alludes to as his Honor’s third letter), in reply to an application for the 25 per cent, on the rates actually paid, amounting to £B4O. Superintendent’s Office, Picton, 29t.h June, 1565. Sir—l have the honour to inform you, that the Government having taken into consideration the supplementing of town rates, is of opinion that owing to the present financial position of the province, the same being now in debt to the New Zealand Bank, and being able only to overdraw the account to a limited extent, it is inexpedient at this juncture to hand over any money in aid of rates. I have, &e., A. P. Seymour, Superintendent. To the Chairman, Board of Works, Picton. This reply was sent in consequence of the Executive having determined that town rates could not be supplemented whilst the means at the disposal of the Government were so inadequate to meet the expenditure absolutely required to keep the country roads in anything like a passable stato during tho winter. Had tho editor of the News published the correspondence, instead of garbled and untrue statements of the contents of the Superintendent’s letters, his readers would have seen that the supplement to the rates collected was never promised, and that the Superintendent never stated, in what the

editor of the News calls his third letter, “ That on no consideration will the rates of the Town Board here (i. e., Blenheim) be supplemented.” His reason for not publishing the correspondence is patent on the face of the article. If he thinks that such puerile attempts to cast odium on any one will redound to the credit of the News, or be allowed by us to pass without a plain statement of facts, he is much mistaken. Whether his readers wish him to adhere to truth, or are prepared to believe any purely fictitious statement he may make, if it only contains plenty of hard words, thrown pell-mell at the Government andPicton.is no concern of ours. It is simply our duty, when we meet with such articles as those' we have commented on, to point out the truth to those who are open to conviction, which duty we shall fearlessly fulfil.