THE PUBLIC AND THE ENGLISH PRESS. (London Spectator, November 12.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2652, 11 January 1905, Page 49

THE PUBLIC AND THE ENGLISH PRESS. (London Spectator, November 12.)

The total "effect of all the changes which have taiken place in the press during the last two years is that- great masses of opinion have in London no effective voice, that that those politicians who rely on the newspapers to' tell them at breakfast the direction of the national" thought are liable to be seriously deceived. One result of it all which we seem to perceive very clearly is a little curious This is a perceptible decline in Mie influence of the press. It began, of course, with the- reduction of the suffrage. Th? old Tan-pounders were accustomed to rely upon their papers — which, again, were conducted with great, though it may have been accidental, ability — for representation, so that in 1855 John Delane was really the strongest man in England, with influence which made bis journal en occasion a counterpoise to the Cabinet. No one has held that position since; the householders have often shown complete independence of Ihe press; and the-classcs to which halfpenny papers appeal ask, or are supposed to ask, for very different intellectual food from anything that John Delane and his colleagues would have consented to supply. We are told that the spread of education must have increased the influence of the press by increasing its circulation ; but we incline to believe that, while education greatly increases the desire to read newspapers, it greatly diminishes the readiness to take newspaper opinion for gospel. The press-has rever been able to rule Scotland, where education has bitten deeper than in England,' and where, nevertheless, the ■people, and especially the voters, form opinions — often very "dour" opinions — for themselves. The cheapening of the newspapers, too, has diminished their individual power. Formerly a »man paid threepence for the paper he approved, studied it very carefully, often re-reading it in the evening, and, consciously or unconsciously, imbibed opinions from it as congregations still do from the sermons of a favourite divine. Now a man buys a penny paper and two halfpenny papers, glances at all three, throws all three- away, and forms his own judgment under other guidance. He is amused by his papers, possibly interested, but he is no longer convinced. Reflect for a moment on the utter powerlessness of the press to influence the London County Council.

Whether :t is good for a country or bad that its newspaper? should fall into the hands of capitalists is, we think, a question to be decided by future experience. The process, which in this country goes on rapidly, certainly tends to solidify public order, the interest of the capitalists in avoiding cataclysms, revolutions, riots, or anything that shakes banks or stock exchanges, being supreme and immediate. Moreover, it prevents an evil system now terribly prevalent on the Continent under which men with axes to grind pay, sometimes heavily," not only for newspaper support, but frequently for the insertion of special -articlesr The principal writers know nothing of such transactions, or, when they suspect them, -remonstrate ; but ar& told that the shareholders or the proprietors absolutely demand a dividend, and that without such "accidental profits" they could not have one. Whatever the. secrets of the financial markets, political life in England is free of that curse ; and that it is fres is partly due to the fact that the enormous outlay rendered necessaor by the British

system of collecting news almost, if not quite, forbids poor men to start daily papers. On the other hand, a monopoly of the press by very rich men leaves the masses upon many subjects almost without aduible voices, and opens the door to an abuse which, if not exactly dangerous, certainly tends to lead the judgment of politicians astray. One man may own a dozen widelycirculated papers, each of which is supposed by its usual readers to be expressing an independent opinion, whereas it Is only obeying a signal from a London office. We do not say, as has been said, that public opinion is in this way "poisoned" — for, as we haye hinted, wo believe the guiding power of the press to be on the cTecline, — but the expression of public opinion is thereby made dec&ptive, and politicians are rendered confident of a support which in their hour of trial unexpectedly melts away. A good deal of the surprise which, as we believe, will ke excited by the next elections will be due to this cause, and to the mistake of thinking that under the new ondilions the circulation and the power of a journal are convertible terms.

A tangi was held at Matangi, near Cambridge, a few days ago on the remains of Tamahana, a noted chief. On Saturday some 600 Maoris were pr&sent. The Hon. Mahuta, who is amongst the mourners, has issued a notice prohibiting the use of intoxicating drink at the gathering.