Wellington Enpendent TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1871.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue XXVI, 1 August 1871, Page 2

Wellington Enpendent TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1871.

As Wellington has been recently made by Renter and Co., the centre of New Zealand telegraphic communication, the letter of Mr Montrose, the resident manager, will be read with much interest here. The success which has attended the firm of Router and Co. throughout the woild, and the experience they must have acquired, 'make it a matter of congratulation that they have included New Zealand in the circle of their operations. How important may be the advantages springing from such a powerful and successful organisation, when New Zealand is in telegraphic communication with Britain, it is not difficult to realise. Not the least of its advantages, meanwhile, is that from the guiding principle which animates all Reuter and Co'a agencies, the public are effectually guarded against tho garbled and sensational telegrams which it has been our duty so frequently to ejxpose ; while by the system elaborated after a lengthened experience in journalistic telegraphy, the time of our telegraphic j officials will not be occupied in wearisome repetitions of the same message to different journals, and the wires will be more available tor the use of the general public, A minor, but no inconsiderable advantage, our readers will have anticipated, namely, that there will be an end to the bitter controversies about rival telegraphic agencies of which they must be heartily sick. That Renter's arrangements will be always perfectly carried out by fallible human instruments, we do not of course expect ; but that any agent who has once violated the spirit of his instructions will never again so err, is very plainly deducibie from Mr Montrose's letter. In vast undertakings, in which there are myriads of details, success is only certain when the smallcs'; irregularity is rendered all but impossible, and when the supervising executive authority can be appealed to promptly and with effect. Such, at least, we understand has been the distinctive feature in all Reuter and Co.'s organised agencies. Against combinations or' the most powerful newspapers in the world, with the London " Times" at their head, have they contended, and ultimately triumphed ; and it was evident to everyone who had given any thought to the subject, that the attempt of the so-called Press Association in New Zealand to drive them out of the field was hopeless to absurdity. The two agencies, however, did contend ; but that which hud vanquished the "Times," of Printing House Square, prevailed, as a matter of course, over that originated and managed by the " Daily Times, " of Princes-street, Dunedin. It is pitiable ; it is positively ludicrous, to see the " Otago Daily Times " not consent telegraphically to die. A defeat that is no disgrace should be freely, as it can be honorably, acknowledged. To attempt to account for it by imputing the worst of motives to others is puerile and base. The " Times' " article, referred to by Mr Montrose, was effectually disposed of by the " West Coast Times," and but /or a leader on the telegram case reprinted in a contemporary from the "Argus," founded on a letter from its Otago correspondent (generally supposed ro be the late editor of the " Times") we should not have noticed it. The " Argus," we learn, from Mr Montrose's letter is repeating the same hopeless attempt in Australia which so signally failed in New Zealand. The manager of the New Zealand opposition company — evidently still sore, tries to help the Associated Press of Australia in the unequal struggle. The same weapons so unsuccessfully wielded here are again employed, viz., defamatory charges against the Government of New Zealand ; but despairing of their effect, furor ministrat anna, the "Argus" now resorts to some altogether new — namely, the vilest insinuations of corruption of the magisterial bench and denial of justice, or, to put it into phraseology already very familiar to the readers of the " Otago Dully Times," " such a scandalous subordination of the administration of the law to the will of the Executive as would have done no discredit to the Stuarts in the worst times of English history." Why the "unfortunate House of Stuart" has been so often referred to in this matter is only to be accounted for by supposing the writer to have at no remote period been a reader or lecturer on history, and, as a person wildly excited always docs, using the illustrations most familiar to him. In Melbourne this charge of magisterial corruption may seem very specious : in Wellington we know it is rank absurdity. For the "Times' to fancy, for instance, that " its own" in Wellington is entrusted with the compilation of all telegrams by a firm (Greville and Co.), "to nil in tents and purposes a government institution," and that Mr Fox's " cup of bliss will be filled" by "pleasantly chuckling" along with him " in manipulating the telegrams" and helping him to betray his trust, is incffiiWj ridiculous, and only to bo snrpased by the " Argus" supposing that our magistrates and justices "are the pliant tools of the present Minis'.ry." We regret to see the leading columns of two such journals so egreginusly abused ! We regret, moreover, that a Wellington paper should have inserted an article reflecting on the honor of the resident magistrate and justices of Wellington, without one word of disapproval. The "Argus" calls the decision they arrived at " a disgraceful decision," language which must mean that Mr Crawford, our respected magistrate, and the gentlemen who sat with him, whom

we esteem as " all honorable men," have disgraced themselves by refusing to find any one guilty of what they believed never took place ! The offence charged against Mr Lemon was that of divulging a telegram, while the whole evidence went to show that it first saw the light through tho proper channel, and that its contents were never seen by mortal eye, nor heard by mortal ear, outside of the department ! The counsel for the accused never uttered a word in defence ; the counsel for the prosecution did not even say an offence had been committed, and the charge in the indictment made against Mr Lemon of contravening the Telegraph Act was supported (?) by evidence most clearly showing that he had most faithfully observed its provisions, by obeying the instructions of his superior officer ! His innocence was so fully established that the verdict of acquittal followed instantly as a mere matter of course, — the audicncelaughing at seeing such a small mouse brought forth after the protracted labors of such mountains of malicious misrepresentation 1 We are surprised that the " Times" and the " Argus" should lend their columns to such attempts to stir up " alarm and indignation," as can only end in provoking laughter and contempt. *' No other sentiments,"' says the "Argus," "than those of alarm and indignation should actuate every mind on becoming acquainted with so disgraceful a decision." We arc afraid, then, the people of Wellington are hopelessly reprobate ; for they laughed when the decision was given, and openly expressed their pleasure as i at the end of a rather dreary farce ! The "Argus" need not be so much concerned for us ; the people of Now Zealand feel that the fountains of justice are not polluted, and thutthey have all the more reason to confide in the honor and independence of their justices, when they read in the columns of the " Argus" itself of the Victorian Government having had so recently to visit with censure some of their justices for receiving fees, and others for counterfeiting trade marks ! This disgraceful attack upon the honor of our local magistrates, repeated in a Wellington paper without any expression of disapproval, has, we confess, drawn us away from the main subject of Mr Montrose's letter. We gather, however, from a significant allusion in it with regard to the " Argus," that our remarks are not so foreign to the subject as they may at first sight appear. Both the " Times" and the " Argus" seem to seek the overthrow of Reuter and Co.'s agency, the one in New Zealand, the other in Australia — the former by calling it " a Government institution," and indecently insinuating that the Premier will "manipulate its telegrams;" the latter by attempting to show that the Government who " lend it the weight of their influence " and the magistrates of New Zealand ("their pliant tools") despise every sentiment of honor, and pervert the course of justice. Hoth journals forget to add that R.euter's telegrams are proverbial for accuracy all over the world, and that in no country under the sun, as we learn from the published reports, is greater confidence felt in the telegraph department than in the much pitied colony of New Zealand. We hail with satisfaction the establishment among us of this telegraphic agency, and deprecate such bitter hostility and unfair criticism as Mr Montrose fairly complains of. We repeat our entire confidence in the accuracy of telegrams compiled by its agents — believing that any coloring will lead to instant dismissal. Mr Gillon is, we understand, acting as compiler for Wellington, and as we have referred to him in another capacity, it is but fair to add our conviction that it is as preposterous as it would be indecent to insinuate that he would send " telegrams constantly colored," or that he is likely to be in any respect inferior to any agent the " Otago Daily Times" may " specially appoint." Our Dunedin contemporary seems to be as nervously afraid of impartiality as tho Irishman was of justice. " Don't be afraid of justice," said the judge. " Troth, and its the fear of that same that throubles me," was the candid reply !