WELL! DID YOU EVER?

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 42, 6 February 1885, Page 15

WELL! DID YOU EVER?

HE Premier has had another fling at the Press. The Press has not treated us so well that we should be particularly zealous in its defence. But it is a useful institution, and in this country it is no worse than it is elsewhere. On the contrary, it is, we think, if not better on the whole, at least as good as the Press in most places. The Premier, however, evidently entertains a contempt for the New Zealand Press, a contempt, nevertheless, mingled with some fear. In his Nelson speech the otherday he is reported to have spoken thus : "He spoke of the advantages of the Press and its freedom, and said without it they could have no pure Government, but he said men must not take to journalism as it had been said some took to the commission agency business, when they were thoroughly broken down, and had failed in all else, they put a pen behind their ear and called themselves commission agents: He recognised that in this democracy journalists should be thoroughly equipped and competent for their profession, and he apprehended that if all had been of such a class they would have had better government in the past as well as better newspapers. He asked them to let him say that if the Press criticised politicians, the Press must expect criticism in return." Very well, turn about is fair play. The case stands thus : the Press has criticised the Premier's Dunedin speech unfavourably; and he retorts, in the way of criticism, by assuming that his critics are only broken down hacks. This is pretty strong, and comes queerly from a man that has himself twice tried journalism and has twice failed to make a striking Ruccess. The Press, we imagine, will take the Premier's thrust very complacently, and proceed on its course of criticism without paying much attention to. the agency illustration. The Premier, both in his Dunedin and Nelson speeches, made a great parade of the doings and intentions of his Government, but only in highsounding general terms. He came into office, according to his estimate of tne circumstances, to restore confidence, and he assumes that he has succeeded. But the proofs of such success are wanting. The depressson is still as intense as ever. He also, he says, came into office to give the country something like real local Government, and he has spoken twice for the purpose of evolving before the public his policy on this question. But the public are still asking what does the Stout Cabinet intend to do in reference to local Government. He regrets the abolition of the Provinces, but does not give any indication of what he proposes, if, indeed, he proposes anything, to put in their place. So far as the speeches of the Premier are concerned, they are mere words and mystification. The Press, probably, will continue to criticise him unfavourably, notwithstanding his comparison of it with the broken down agent.