THE TELEGRAM QUESTION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 803, 21 December 1870, Page 4

THE TELEGRAM QUESTION.

The following report of what Mr Yogel said on the above question, at his second meeting, is taken from the Dunedin Evening Star of Dec. 15 :—

I will now refer to the action of the Daily Times in its endeavour to damage the Govern ment, by its allegations as to the stealing of telegrams. I give to those charges, one and all, an absolute denial— they are utterly and entirely false. (Applause.) The Telegraph Department has not, in any sense or way, violated the integrity of any telegrams committed to its charge for transmission. I grant that there were circumstances con-, nected with the matter that might fairly have led the Daily Times to ask for explana tion. But instead of taking that course, it rushed to the conclusion— and announced it to the public— that the Telegraph Department, acting under instructions from the Government, had been stealing telegrams addressed to the paper ; and no language has been thought too strong— no pertinacity too great— for the purpose of enforcing the accusations made. Again and again the accusation!* have been stated — again and again the threat has been made, that proceedings would be instituted against the Telegraph Department, if the Government did not admit that that had been done which the Daily i imes charged to have been done. The threats of instituting proceedings were by no means ambiguous. Under the impressioh that such threats, once made, would be carried out, the Government refrained from doing that which otherwise it probably would have done — from instituting criminal proceedings against the paper on account of the libels it had published. (Cries of "Oh ! oh J " " Hear, hear," and a good deal of applause.) I want you to understand, and to recognise the force of the fact, that the explanations to be given in meeting in detail charges of such , a kind, are explanations which it would be a violation of the secrecy of the Telegraph Office to give, unless those explanations were brought out in a Court of Law. I could not now give so full an explanation as I am about to give, were it not for the fact that the editor of the Star very generously came to the rescue the other day, and stated in the columns of that paper, that which otherwise I should not have been at liberty to tell to you, because it would have been a violation of the law regarding the Telegraph department. You will, no doubt, many of you, recollect that the great mystery, and the great point made by the Times was that, on the morning after the Times extra was published here, the Wellington Independent published news containing a paragraph identi cal with what appeared in the limes, and therefore, as the Editor of the Times aaid, it was only by a stealing of the telegrams that tbat paragraph could have appeared in Wellington. What the Star said the other day was this. —That it had telegraphed the Times telegram to the Independent. The Telegraph Department, or the Government, would have had no right to state except in Court of Law no matter how grievous and false the charges made — that the Star, or that anybody, had sent a certain telegram from Dunedin to the Independent : the fact is a secret which,, I beg of you to remember, we could not have disclosed except in a Court of Law ; but the explanation of the Star places me at liberty to say that the explanation as to that paragraph from the Times extra appearing in the Independent of the next morning, is simply the Star telegraphed the Times extra, or a portion of it, to Wellington, on the same day as it appeared here; and therefore it could and did appear in the Independent on the following morning. (Interruption, and applause.) Noy, as to the telegram sent to the -Hon Mr Gisborne, forthe Government. Thkt telegram was sent by the Collector of Customs at the Bluff. The Times has said that the telegram could not have contained the information it did contain, without its being stolen from the Times telegram. In the face of that statement, would you believe — it may be difficult to do so, but nevertheless what I fhall state is a fact — that the Times telegram was opened on board the Gothenburg, in the presence of one of tbe directors of the Times Company, and was then read by the captain. (Applause, and " Oh I oh ! ") The captain oij the Gothenburg, having so seen the telegram, told the collector of Customs tbe news which the Collector telegraphed to Mr Gisborne for tbe Government. (Hear, hear.) But, of course, the v imes has suppressed the fact as to the opening tbe telegram in presence of one of the directors of tbe Times Cpmpany. (Applause.) Next as to the first tejlegram to the Independent. As to it, again, the statement has been made that part of it could not have been obtained, except by being wrongly taken from the Times telegraph. (A Voice : Oh ! get on-! That's etjough' about the Times). The telegram to the Independent from the Bluff, certainly contained some of the late news. The late news was sent by the purser of the Gothenburg; and he states that he got his information in the Melbourne Argus ofilce. It is true that

Mr George, of the Argus, states that the third edition, containing the late news, waa not out when the Gothenburg left. The probability, however, is that the news contained in the third edition was in the Argus office before the Gothenburg left. At all events it is sufficient to say that the purser gave in, at the Bluff, the late news for the Independent which appeared in that paper's extra ; and that the purser says he obtained his information from the Argus office. He has made that statement to Mr Lemon, the General Manager of the Department ; he has made it to Mr Mackenzie, the proprietor of the Independent. Whether he obtained his information in that way, or through the captain of the Gothenburg, who read the Times telegram on board the ship, and in the presence of one of the directors of the Times — the fact remains that the purser of the Gothenburg is the person who sent this late news from the Bluff to the Independent. Such, then, are the explanations of the three circumstances so much relied on by the Times : — The information in Mr Gisborne's message was supplied by the Collector of Customs at the Bluff, who got it from the captain of the Gothenburg. As to the late news contained in the first telegram; sent to the Independent, the purser of the Gothenburg is responsible for it. The news which appeared in the Independent on the next day, and which was copied from the Daily Times extra, so appeared, because somebody in Dunedin cut it out, took it to the Telegraph Office, and it was transmitted and paid for like any other Press message. (Applause, and some interrup tion.) The telegraph operators are in such matters mere machines ; they simply receivp messages and transmit them to their destinations. The operators have not violated the integrity of the department; and the charges that they have done so are— (A Voice: Lies.) — yes, that is the short English of it— are absolutely false and scandalous charges. CLoud applause, and some hooting.) The Times has sought to injure the Telegraph Department, by stat ; ng that it was not worthy of that confidence, without which such a department must be worthless ; and it is impossible to use language too strong to be just in denouncing such attempts. Will you believe that whilst the editor of the Times was threatening legal proceedings, the directors were writing to the Government asking for explanations ? The Government replied that no explanation would be given until there had been a complete retractation ; until all threats to institute legal proceedings had been withdrawn, and an apology for the language ueed in the paper had been published. What did the directors reply ? That they had nothing to do -with what the /Editor had stated— (laughter); that they had nothing to do with threats of legal proceedings— (laughter; ; that no doubt the Editor would apologise, if he was in the wrong — (loud laughter, followed by hootings); and that if the Editor had threatened proceedings, he had done so on his own account. — (Confusion and laughter, and a cry, " Do get done with the Times.") A reply was sent, that if the directors would apologise for what had been published in their paper, an explanation should be given to them — but not otherwise. Of the explanation that would have been given to the directors, I have now told you the substance. You may perhaps suppose that in to-morrow's paper a humble apology will be published ; because I am sure you must feel that the explanation now given is' absolutely conclusive. (Hear, hear.} Ido not like assuming the functions of a prophet ; but looking at the wrong-mindedness which has characterised the paper, I venture to say that instead of a humble apology being published, you will probably find that Sairey will amuse herself by abusing me. (Laughter, and a cry of, " Well, have you done with the Times now ? ")