CLEAN JOURNALISM.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13683, 27 August 1908, Page 2

CLEAN JOURNALISM.

REPORTS CONTESTS. Press Assooation-Bv Telegraph-Copvright - / ADELAIDE, August "26. In the Assembly, IMr Vanghan ai-ked the Treasurer whether it was not. possible to prevent the publication of details of a fight such as, that between' Burns and Squires. ~ . The Hon. A. 11. Peake, AttorneyGeneral, replied that he quite agreed with thi> suggestion but he did not think that, the-law prohibited :ihe publication of its details.

To the Editor of the " Timaru Herald." Sir, —Mock modesty? Well no. Coming . through the school of hard knocks and moving too and fro on. the earth, this kind of thing is lost and a fellow is none the worse for it. The inspiration flowing from my brain to the Waverley nib and on to the .paper leads me to ask, whether it would not be a pertinent question to put to coming candidates for parliamentaiy honours as to whether it is according, to. the eternal fitness of. things that journalism : in Xevp Zealand should! be allowed to sink below a level where it becomes lecherous and unclean, thus polluting young minds. During the pi.st week a paper of yellowish tint, with striking headlines, which for- the most part draws attention to sexual sins and such like, came into my hands, having reached the house wrapped round a parcel. My eye fell upon a column of exceptionally unclean reading > relating with much suggestiveness of detail to an unnatural offence (clipping enclosed for your perusal). The pcint. is, this paper is'wold in the cities by small boys who. get a larger margin of profit and a readier s,ale than they do by the more instructing and . elevating papers at a smaller It mustbe getting an extensive circulation. It is si-en at times on railway carriage seats, sticking out, °f pockets, and so on. There is no mistaking Ha .lint,' it has the completion of the Eastern race it Js so hysterically coarse about. The effect of such reading must be bad. One wonders whether the increase recently of a certain class of crime cannot be associated with this wretched publication, gome 25 years ago I recall fin incident where the whole printing plant was seized by the police for publishing a. sheet no worse than the one under review. The colony where this occurred made little pretensions of being so " unco gujd " as Jfew Zealand. It is time the police took action in the matter and gave it notice %o quit returning across the seti from whence it carne. Jf indecent cr.rd* are illegal in the sale,' why not indecent word pictures?, That no selfrespecting person would either sell or buy it goes without saying. Journalism must sink low when it caters for the foaorf Qne -jypnld not b,g snrr prised to see such leprous stuff thrust into your face to buy if •waljdng aijaut Cairo or Port Said. It is. not difficult'to, imaging a pp= r »f..U? hwA ■ Iw'sHins with liil)ricjty as it dpe3, tjeing printed in some kind of bagnio by a staff of lilttebeards, with Mephistopheles as manager, Lotharjo as sub-edjtov and. P«n, Juan as erljlor and a litjidipous-minded Abriman across the seas as proprietor,, -who. will give any reporter work endowed with, an extensive vocabulary of'"language." if my mind serves me right during recent months some of-the local clergy protested against the innocent mailer of selling simple refreshments in Caroline .Bay on Sundays thereby driving men into a sly entrance for stronger refreshments. Yet no voice is raised on the matter of this impure paper being gold in Timaru," Ix not this fiddling while Rome is burning? Oh this obtuseness of moral vision ! Might I remind these friends that people—especially the half-educated-—become like the lewd stuff.they read.

I must thank you, sir, for drawing my attention.some time back in one of your articles to an able and somewhat original pamphlet on modern education by .l'rof. J. Macmillan Brown, of Christchurch. it is well worth the shilling paid for. it. On page 12 I notice the following : —" It is useless shutting our eye.} to the fact that journalism has taken "the place that the Church used-to haw. The editors of our papers are the true.bishops of the diocese. Everv free' community is getting mere and more" dependent: on the newspaper for not on'.y its intellectual, but its ethical, life. And journalism is on the fair way to becoming the conscience and the religion ol mankind." To a point I endorse this and holding these views the evil mentioned in this letter is not a small one. Some of the so called respectable journals in New Zealand need a lift up. It is nob always safe to judge a house by the front garden appearance—the back yard is a truer test of the cleanliness of its occupants. The weekly supplement of a paper stands for the back yard. M times the articles in some supplements are not well chosen; they cater for the morbid'and tickle the passions. I have no fault to find with the "Herald" supplement—in fact the contrary.—l am etc., KLERIKOS.