The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, JANUARY 4, 1867.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 3, 4 January 1867, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, JANUARY 4, 1867.

Toe present is not an inappropriate time to make a few remarks on the enlargement of this journal, and to state the reasons which have influenced the proprietors in encountering the additional expense and labor thereby incurred. When starting the Evening Mail in March last, they stated that they did so under the conviction that an evening paper was a want of the community, and that they would endeavor to supply it to the best of their ability. The numerous requests they received on every haud justified them in coining to this conclusion, and the success which had attended evening papers in other towns of the colony, furnished another argument in favor of attempting to establish one here. It is well known that in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, and HokHika, the evening paper has in each town been a great success, and although Nelson is not so populous as three of these towns, there is no reason why the experiment should not succeed to some extent. It was not intended, so the proprietors stated at the time, that the Mail should enter into competition with the morning journals. The size, the style, the quantity and kind of information furnished excluded the idea that it was designed to supersede old established journals. The older journals made pretensions to a more cosmopolitan character that the managers of the evening paper ever dreamt it would assume, but as they by dint of taking an extended range of observation frequently overlooked minute objects nearer home, there was no impropriety in assuming that a journal published at a different time, and confining itself more exclusively to local topics, would conciliate a considerable amount of public favor. In this respect the expectations of the proprietors have been more than realised. Considering the smallness and cliquish character of the community of which Nelson is composed ; the attempts that were made to talk aud write down , the Mail when it first appeared ; the envious malignity that was shown in some quarters, and the gross breach of promises of which others were guilty, in withhold- ' ing their support after having urged its first appearance — the success of the venture has been of the most marked kind, and proves that with regard to the future the proprietors may be without alarm or apprehension. The proprietors are aware that some dissatisfaction has been expressed by subscribers and advertisers, that the enlargement did not take place at an earlier day. Various reasons may be assigned for the delay which has been complained of. There are mechanical and commercial difficulties in the way of starting a newspaper, of which the most generous readers and the most liberal advertisers have faint conceptions,. At the antipodes it is not always easy to command paper of the right description, or the machinery which is necessary to publish with facility, a daily paper. Besides, the times have been out of joint politically, and many men supposed to be wise in their generation, have foretold the extinction of small newspapers especially, in consequence of the retrograde system of taxation enforced by Stafford and Co. No doubt the newspaper tax will operate as a heavy blow

and great discouragement to the little papers as well as to their big brethren of the broad sheet, and the proprietors coufess they have not been without sundry qualms at divers times, that they too would be ingulfed in the rapacious and capacious maw of Stafford and his accomplices. It does not do, however, for a newspaper man to despair of his craft any more than a patriot should of his country. A little ship sometimes rides out the gale to which the iron-clad vessel succumbs, as we have seen the boat with its precious freight reach a safe haven, while the noble London has gone down with all on board. This is not written boastfully, but hopefully and trustfully, and in the hope that the good sense of the community will ultimately overbalance the craft and cupidity of renegade politicians, and not allow newspapers, either small or large, to be swamped amid the squabbles of contending factions. It has been necessary, however, to exercise great caution before proceeding to incur expenses that circumstances might not warrant. We must pay for our paper, ink, machinery, and labor in a legitimate way, aud if we cannot, we will not send the hat round to Stafford or any other man. In a word, we must be supported by subscribers and advertisers, whose approval we will do our utmost to secure. Our maxim will be to furnish the best article our supporters will enable us to produce, and keep out of debt. The drift of the previous reasoning is to show that we have been anxious to begin in a humble way, and gradually grow into vigor and efficiency, in a ratio corresponding with the growth of the community for whom we labor. If the infant Hercules is not strangled at his birth he grows aud astonishes the world by his unequalled labors. The Mail has survived the delicate and dangerous period of infancy, and if well nourished by public opinion, will soon arrive at the strength of mature age. Nelson, with a railway or without it, will become a larger place than it is, and without treading on the toes of our elder brethren of the press, we hope to find 1 ample scope and verge enough for the exercise of our multifarious duties. Leaving them, for the most part, to descant in their ample pages, on the more abstruse and recondite topics that a journalist has to attend to, we will, whilst taking an occasional glance at things remote, confine ourselves more particularly, as space allows, to things at home. And we hope to render some assistance in the strife that is impeuding. The guerilla troops are sometimes of as much use in warfare as the soldiers of the line. At any rate they act as skirmishers, and help to rout the enemy. If the Mail is compelled for the present, by its circumscribed limits, to leave its older competitors to deal with the heavy political, the sublime and beautiful, it may not be uselessly employed in dealing with things of a local and. practical nature. It therefore hopes to deserve well of its subscribers by chronicling that which occurs in daily life; by giving impartial reports of public events; by furnishing the earliest attainable intelligence by post and telegraph; and by occasionally indulging in a blast at things political as opportunity shall favor and circumstances warrant. Thanking our supporters for their watchful care during the period of helpless infancy from which we have emerged, and asking them to furnish us with that nutritious, aliment which shall form the bone and muscle of the perfect man, we confide in that success which, if we cannot command, ■ it is our determination to deserve.