Mr Waliefield's Retirement

Southland Times, Issue 7030, 19 January 1885, Page 2

Mr Waliefield's Retirement

We reprint the following leader from the Otago Daily Tmeiß,asexpressingexaotly our own estimate of Mr Wakefieldasa journalist. No doubt it expresses also the judgment of the general Press of New Zealand :— We cannot allow Mr Wakefield to resign the editorship of the Timaru Herald without an expression of regret and of acknowledgment. Ordinarily, the etiquette of journalism sinks the personality of the editor in that of his journal, but this case may legitimately be considered an exception. A daily paper published in the small though charming town of t Timn.ru won id not under ordinary circumstances enjoy any circulation beyond, the thinly-populated district in which it is published. B-it the brilliancy of Mr Wakefield's talents has raised the Timaru Herald to the rank of a colonial journal and there is probably not a Pressman in the colony who dispute his right to be considered the premier journalist of New Zealand. It would probably not be an exaggeration to say that at every clab— and we may certainly add, at every newspaper office— in the colony there is no journal which is more looked for, and nono whose leading columns are more readable and more read, than Iho Timaru Herald. Nor have Mr Wnkf-fijMVtalentß been displayed m^r«J> in t --o 'treatment of * the more serious subjects* Two, or three times a week his readers h iw been treated to short comments styled " Notes, " written in a more playful vein, and often displaying considerable scholarship and a wide range of reading. Often and often have we heard the astonished reader, exclaim in wonder at the odds aoi ends of put of-tbe-way but interflating information so racily, .conveyed in -these Notes. It was in these too that he gave the freest fling to his pen which is obv : ously that of a ready writer, an J a style which derived its greatest charm from its ease a.nd unaffectedneß3, whilst startling the reader often by an unconventionality, wrliich coiupeTs admiration by its very Bmda,city. .^pd. funct> the SGOusatidQ,

Wakefield used bis jomnal to pufE himself, we, " as "constant readers of the Timaru Herald, are glad to take this opportunity to place it on record that we do not believe a oingle instance can be pointed ootiu winch Mr Wokefield has been praised in itn columns. The opinionsoftneTimarullor.ilfl coincided with those which the nifinui i for Selwya expressed in the House, but this was a necessary and unavoidable result of Mr Wakffield's dual position. It could not be expected that be should express one opinion in .the House and another in his paper. Whether it is desirable for tbe editor of an organ of public opinion to be subjected to the influences inseparable . from a political career is another question, anrl it is quite possible that had !\lr Wakofield not been in the Houee last -session th« Timaru Herald wou'd not have laken up quite the t-ame political position which it now occupies ; but that is quite another matter from using the paper to puff: himself, and we cannot but think that politicians of the reputation and in the position o£ Sir Julius Yogel arid Major Atkinson should have been more careful to ascertain whether there was any foundation for sucli a charge before making it. The readers of tbe Timaru Herald in every part of the colony will, we are sure,- join with us in sincerely regretting Mr Wakefield'B resignation, and we venture to say that they, comprise a large number of tbe most intelligent persons in tbe community.