The Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1866.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 235, 6 December 1866, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1866.

The Wanganui Chronicle invites the newspaper proprietors of the colony to join it in a conspiracy against the Government, in order to punish it for its shabby and ungrateful conduct", in imposing a tax on newspapers. The word conspiracy has au awkward look about it. aud may suggest the idea to the timid that "our contemporary wishes to engage in treasons, stratagems, and spoils, aud is anxious to obtain sympathy and support before bringing on his head the ire of the powers that be. The Chronicle is simply angry, as all uewspaper proprietors are just now, that the Government, or rather the Parliament, should in these hard times have imposed the last feather which is to break the back of some overburdened and weak colonial journals. We have always held that the work the newspapers, have done, aud ever will do, for the Government should be regarded as an equivalent for any little privilege they receive in. reference to postal arrangements, aud it would serve that prince of screws (the Postmaster-General) right if all the journals in the colony would do what the Chronicle invites them to do, combine, conspire, or anything you like, to show that pompous official, that if he is determined to tax the press, its proprietors are resolved to cease the gratuitous labor which they have been accustomed to perform. The meanness of imposing a tax with one hand, and with the other sending advertisements for gratuitous insertion in the papers, may well provoks the indignation of the Chronicle, and compel it, in honest wrath, to suggest conspiracies, or call for some summary chastisement, to punish conduct so mean, ungrateful, and insolent beyond compare. This is the essence of the conspiracy recommended. From and after the day upon which the newspaper tax shall be put in force, let the press of the colony persistently refuse to publish or take the slightest notice of either a post-office notice or anything whatever that may appear in the General Government Gazette, unless paid for as au advertisement. This mode of retaliation would soon render the gazette useless, and prove to the Governmeut that the colony, in more ways than one, has full value received for the transmission of newspapers by post. Another reason why the press should do so is this : — A late Postmaster- General iv the House of Representatives, said that advertising Government notices of almost any kind was perfectly useless, or a useless expenditure of money, as the newspapers were always too glad to obtain those notices for the information of their readers. That was all very well whilst newspapers were carried by post, but when taxed the Government will no longer be entitled to the vast amount of gratuitous publicity accorded by the press. For the combination suggested to succeed, however, it must be entered into by the entire press of the colony, and the burden of it must be borne by the influential as well as ' the insignificant representatives of the broad sheet. The question arises, can this be effected. Will it be possible so to extinguish the competition which is the very soul of trade and subdue the emulative spirit without which journalism, like any other trading institution would soon be shorn of half its strength, as to obtain the unanimity of purpose and concentration of action, without which the combination referred to would soon fall to the ground. No doubt the Postmaster was right who said that it is the interest of newspaper proprietors to circulate the greatest possible amount of information respecting the acts of the Government, for the benefit of their readers; and it will be a difficult task to get them to suppress this information, at the risk of disgusting their subscribers, in order to show fight with a money-grubbing Postmaster On this account our fighting contemporary, the Wanganui Chronicle, will fiud it a tough job to bring about the combination he so warmly advocates. Besides, it is not so much the Government as the re-

presentatives of the people who are to blame for the recently imposed restrictive, and in some cases prohibitive measures. We see that Mr. Macandrew, one" of the ablest of the Otago members, in addressing his constituents lately, expressed his regret that he voted against the measure for paying a sum to the Wellington papers to insure a fair and full report of the debates. From some cause or other the feeling of public men generally towards the press is anything but what it should be. We have no time now to inquire to what extent newspapers deserve the contempt with which they are treated, but certain it is that the feeliug which actuates public men towards them is very different from that which obtains iv some colonies. Mr. Stafford indulges iv unsparing condemnation of the press, and Judge Johnston, in a recent charge to the jury at Nelson, had some difficulty in suppressing the contemptuous feelings with which he regarded the fourth estate. If men holding the first positions act thus, it is no marvel that the ignorant mob of retainers and hangers-on echo their statements •and paraphrase their sentiments. On the whole, we fear that our Wauganui contemporary will, if he means fighting, have to stand alone in his chivalrous attempt. There is small hope of bringing about the combination he desires. A more rational method of insuring success would be to work upon the representatives of the people, and stimulate them to greater liberality of action. In the meantime, the newspapers must continue to do the Governmeut and the public work, and with reference to the newly imposed burden, unless some unexpected source of help should arise, why they must grin aud bear it.