Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 1879.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 613, 30 January 1879, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 1879.

"We really do not know what subject ■we could possibly hit on to work into leader matter, that people would care to read on a race day. We are inclined to think that many people do not read leaders even on days not given to racing, passing them over for Something lighter and more digestible which, may be found m the local and telegraph columns. "We have a strong opinion on the matter of newspaper leader-writing. We think there is often great mental waste. Still it is demanded of editors that they should every day of publication produce something with the " we" sprinkled through the column. * How one is to get his subject fresh and fresh every day, as he gets his milk, is a mystery which editors do not make known to the outside world. They are aware that people have, m a great measure, ceased to think on matters of general import for themselves. They say, m effect, we subscribe for our newspapers, and the thinking must be done by those who are paid to think. If we want a dinner of meat, the butcher cuts up the carcass, and leaves at our door the joint we have ordered. We trust to the butcher leaving us a good joint, and if he does not serve us as he should, we go to some other butcher. So it is with our baker, and our grocer, and other tradesmen. We deal with our newspaper something m the same way. We pay for having our thinking done for us. If it is not to our mind, we pass it over, and perhaps go to an opposition journal more io our taste, and m better keeping with out prejudices. $till, there can be no doubt that w«!l'th<raghtout, clearly, forciblywritten leading «rticles have helped to influence the civilized world, and decided the fate of nations. The Press is a power which the greatest living statesmen of the day dare not ignore, or cast on one Bide. The great Lord Palmerston, when Minister for Foreign Affairs, once said — "If you please,- sir, the trap is waiting outside for the races, and the

man says he won't wait, and that if you don't come now, you can stop where you are." And this is why we have been compelled to bring our leader to a close so abruptly. We are quite sure it would have been a very powerful one, and probably such as would have caused the present Ministry to have sent m their resignations ; but such is newspaper life — and who can help it ? "We have no racing reporter, as will be seen m another place m our columns, and what is to be done 1