The Waipawa Mail. Published Tuesdays, Thursdays, & Saturdays. Tuesday, September 2, 1890.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 2500, 2 September 1890, Page 2

The Waipawa Mail. Published Tuesdays, Thursdays, & Saturdays. Tuesday, September 2, 1890.

Some explanation is due to our readers of our non-publication yesterday after our previous announcement, therefore we give the following account of what happened. Last Thursday we wired to Mr At Ac k, the manager of .the Press Association, to send cables and telegrams for daily publication, as the Waipawa Mail would be published daily during the disarrangement of the train service. As the cables did not arrive at the usual time on Friday, we sent another telegram to Mr Atack, and late that evening received from him the following telegram : “ Uncertain whether I can supply you daily without extra fees ; am consulting directors.” The following morning (Saturday) we wired again, demanding a reply whether he would supply the news daily or not. Late that evening we received from him the following telegram : —“ When papers change to dailies they have to pay extra entrance fee. If you are prepared to pay this amount, £3O, and proportionately increased subscriptions, will supply you every day interprovincial at rate of £22, and cables £3O per annum.” Now, it will be observed that it took Mr Atack some time, and a consultation with the directors, who are also newspaper proprietors, to arrive at the conclusion that he was justified in imposing the charge: it will take us considerably longer to satisfy ourselves that we should be justified in submitting to it. The manager of the JFaipawa Mail has accordingly remitted the question for the consideration of the proprietors ; and until their answer is received, we can only publish tri-weekly as heretofore. We demand nothing beyond our legal rights, and if Mr Atack knew his duties properly, and was satisfied that we had no legal claim, he would have replied at once to our demand, without any reference to directors.

There appears to be some danger of forgetting, amidst the prevailing outcry against the tyranny of trades unions, that there has been, and still is, more tyranny practised by capitalists, and in even more objectionable forms. This is exhibited wherever a monopoly is secured. Let us take, for example, the United Press Association. It has got a complete monopoly of the I news service. Every newspaper is virtually compelled to join it; to pay whatever extra fees and rates may be demanded ; and to publish, or at "least pay for, whatever rubbish its agents may choose to send. And if those agents neglect their duty, aud fail to send any news, the only practicable remedy is to employ other agents in

each town. A complaint to the manager produces no other result than a sharp remonstrance to the agent, which is never followed by severe measures. AYe have for some months found it necessary to employ a Napier agent, though the Press Association has two paid agents in Napier. Any new paper which might be started would be absolutely powerless to break up this monopoly, unless its proprietors could induce a sufficient number of the Press Association subscribers, who are dissatisfied with the present management, to start a new Association. Probably something of this kind will be done erelong. The public are getting about tired of the stuff with which newspaper columns are filled. It would seem as if the sole end and aim of existence were to become informed about the odds for or against racehorses, sensational divorce oases, or the achievements of the Australian cricketers. There must soon be a “ revolt of man.”

As one of our contemporaries has rrised the point that the Waipawa Mail is not entitled to receive and publish daily cables and telegrams under its existing contract with the Press Association, we quote the following extracts from the copy of agreement, sent by the manager of the Press Association to the manager of the Waipawa Mail in reply to the latter’s application some months ago : 1. The Association agrees to supply to the proprietor, for the use of the newspaper, the service of news specified in the schedule hereto.

2. The Association agrees to despatch such news to the proprietor at the same time as the same is despatched to other newspapers taking the same service, and without favor or priority to any newspaper over another.

5. The proprietor shall not at any time ... . . . supply, use, make public, or permit or suffer to be supplied, used, or made public, the said cablegrams or any of them ... . . otherwise than by publication of the same in the usual manner in the said newspaper of the proprietor, or in extras issued or published by the proprietor. If there was any special condition in the contract prohibiting daily publication, or requiring an extra fee on account of it, the manager of the Press Association omitted to insert such condition in the copy of the contract which he sent to the manager of the Waipawa Mail.

Sympathisers with the Union Steamship Company in its present struggle may be opportunely reminded of a few incidents in its history. What happened some time ago, when the Centennial and another boat were running ? WTiy, they were “ shepherded ” as closely as unionists watch free laborers. There was also a remarkable difference in fares for a brief season—by those boats and their “ shepherds ” only. -It is just as well to remember that the Company has established and retained a monopoly by means quite as objectionable as those which it so strongly denounces when practised by unionists in their endeavours to control the labor market. Everybody knows that the cost of travelling in the New Zealand coasters is far too high, and that it would soon be reduced if we had free competition. If the Union Company wants free competition in the labour market, then let steps be taken to establish free competition as regards its carrying trade. We grant that its eervices are well performed, and that every possible convenience can be obtained by travellers ; but the cost is to many people prohibitive. An Employers’ Association, if it did its duty fairly and squarely, would burst up such monopolies on the one hand, whilst it abolished sweating and unfair competition on the other.

The Evening News is trying to make oat aa indictment against us on account of our remark, that it is not the business of the Railway Commissioners to consider how adjacent bush settlements might be helped on.” We simply drew a comparison between the Wellington-Manawatu line, which ran through lands owned by the railway company (and which they were anxious to sell and settle), and our 70-mile bush line, where the bind is already sold. If our bush lands belonged to the Crown, the cases would be parallel. Our object was simply to show that the Railway Commissioners had not so much inducement, on economical grounds, as was presented in the case of the Manawatu line. For our own part, we should be glad to see the strongest possible impetus given to the development of all the resources of the country by the adoption of Mr Vaile’s railway system. A great many people are under a wrong impres sion with regard to the consumption of wood as fuel on the trains. On this particular question, the editor of the Mail once discussed all the pros and cons with the late Mr A. R. W. Fulton, engineer and manager of the Manawatu Railway Co., who originated the idea. Mr Fulton admitted that, although they got the wood at a very low price, coal was really cheaper ; but it paid the Company to adopt this plan b. sause it induced people to take up the Company’s bush lands. The settlers would have to clear the bush, and whatever they got for the wood was so much clear profit. The line ran through virgin bush, but as it gets cleared the cost of wood as fuel, in comparison with coal, must tend to rise. The reference in the News to the “ toiling thousands in our 70-mile bush is simply clap-trap, which would be in its fitting place only on the eve of an elec-

tion. We doubt whether there are twenty small settlers in our bush district whose properties abut the railway line. No others could make it pay to supply wood for fuel at such prices as the Manawatu Co. pays. From Takapau to Kopua Messrs Nelson Bros, require all the timber on their property, adjacent to the railway line, for supplying their own works. If we take out the native lands, the properties leased to the Hawke’s Bay Timber Co. and other sawmillers, and the sections which have been already cleared, we shall not find many sections owned by small settlers fronting the railway. This cry has been got op simply for political purposes. There are some politicians who will advocate any absurdity just to catch a few votes.