The Evening Mail WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1878.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 841, 24 December 1878, Page 2

The Evening Mail WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1878.

Wk shall, unless in the interval between this time and the end of the year some member of the Government return to his right mind, be called upon to hand over our free railway passes to the railway authorities at the last mentioned period. No one appears to know why this is being done, unless it is because Mr. MurrayAynsley last session moved a resolution to that effect in Parliament. But, then, that gentleman's resolution was lost, as it deserved to be, and how we now come to hear of the matter in its present form somewhat puzzles us. The question of free railway passes having been brought before Parliament, was there discussed, and disposed of by the Government promising to give the matter its attention. But no one ever dreamed that it was intended to deprive the Press of the privileges which it has enjoyed for years, for no reason could be urged for doing so. Free passes have enabled the Press of the Colony to grow in importance and usefulness to the people. The system, whilst costing the country nothing, has done much to weld communities together, and dissipate their jealousies. A newspaper proprietor, favored with a free pass, is enabled to give his subscribers better value for their money. Thanks to telegraphs and railways, papers have in a vcry grcat measure become representative, not of towns, but of districts and the Colony. Let the Press be deprived of the privilege of travelling upon the railways, and this advantage will be at least half extinguished, because newspaper representatives will cease to travel by railways in search of news. If the Government think that the withdrawal of Press passes will appreciably increase the revenue from railways they are mistaken. Newspapers as speculations are not very rosy. There are not more than perhaps twenty papers in the Colony that arc doing more than paying expenses, and there are not more than half that number that may be considered as good, well-paying properties. The action of the Government in calling in the passes is to be commended. There are a number in the possession of people who have no right to them, and such should not be re-issued. But, if there is any class in the Colony that is entitled to free railway passes it is the Press. When we say this, we do not even except members of Parliament. Whilst we would not advocate the withdrawal of passes from such, we shall take this opportunity of saying that the manner in which members of Parliament use their passes would cause a member of the Fourth Estate to blush. Members of Parliament seldom use their passes for any other purposes than their own, and, in'many instances, the privilege of free travelling is made to servo a purpose as entirely foreign as it is possible for 'it to be from that for which it is granted. Members of Parliament arc supposed to use their privilege for the purpose of acquiring a practical knowledge of the geography of New Zealand, their theoretical education upon that subject having been, as is well known, neglected in their youth. Tliey are supposed to visit their constituents to confer with them as to their wants : but how seldom they fulfil these conditions is proverbial. As the matter will stand, if the Government persist in carrying out the idea of depriving the Press of their passes, members of Parliament who are also journalists will possess a great advantage over their plebeian fellowjournalists. For instance, in Invercargill Messrs. Feldwiok and Joyce, who are in some way connected with the Evening News, and who are also M.H.R.'s, will be able to travel on their Parliamentary ticket in the interests of their paper, whilst if the unfavored proprietors of the Times ever travel they will have to pay the expense of doing so. There are other places in the Colony in which the same thing will occur. Howdocs the Government propose to obviate this injustice 1 We cannot see. In fact, we can scarcely be persuaded that the Government intend to deprive the Press- permanently of thenpasses. There is one argument that may bo used in favor of the privilege being continued to the Press, if it is granted to anybody, and that is, passes were given to the Press in order that it might be able to' send its representatives on useful missions in the interests of papers and the public, and wo are not aware of an instance in which the Press has betrayed the trust reposed in it. We cannot thus compliment some Parliamentary gentlemen to whom passes wore given trusting to their honor to use them legitimately, and not in such a manner as would deprive the Colony of its revenue. That the free-pass system has been conducted loosely by the Government and abused by those who have enjoyed its privileges, there can be no doubt ; but the culprits are not, Press men.

In a few short hours Christmas, with its joys and sorrows, its rejoicings and its regrets, and its numerous good wishes, will have come and gone. So far at any rate as this favored land is concerned it comes unsuiTounded by those disturbing circumstances which, in the old world, mar the pleasures it is supposed to.bring, and make the utterance of the timehonored and venerable wish of "A Merry Christmas " fall gratingly upon the ears of thousands. Though there may be poor in the Colony, there are few to whom the coming of the greatest festival of the year will be other than a source of pleasure. We have here no such poverty and distress as characterises the Mother Country. We are not threatened with the prospect of impending financial ruin, such as now, according to latest accounts, Langs over the heads of thousands in the land we lovo to call "Home." In this we have much to be thankful for. We can bid Christmas a welcome with the full knowledge that we are able to participate fully and unreservedly in the pleasures of the soason, unhampered by the heartrending circumstances which at the present moment surround it in the Mother" Country. Christmas here and Christmas there are, we think, happily for us, entirely different. Though it is not accompanied here with snow, and though the Yule log is unknown in New Zealand, Christinas comes to us with sunshine, and unsurrounded by the misery, sickness, and death which attend it and every other season in the old world. As the New Zealand poet, Mr Thomas Bracken,. says ; Old Christmas comes in a mantle of snow, To our Fatherland, far away, The thunder roars, and the wild winds blow, To herald him on his way. But he cometh here in a garment of light, A plentiful sheaf in his hand, To mark his way the sun shines bright O'er our fair Southern land.

Under such circumstances as those attending Christmas in this Colony, the utterance of the words contain no touch of painful irony, and we therefore heartily -wish our readers A Merry Christmas.