SMARTNESS AND TOADYISM.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 267, 2 March 1889, Page 2

SMARTNESS AND TOADYISM.

It appears to be either our fortune or misfortune to have offended “ tne powers that be.” We do not wish to make any boast, but it is a recognised fact that all through the Te Kooti snare we have been the first to give the public reliable information, without in any way acting as alarmists. The facts have been given and readers have been left to judge for themselves, though we have been careful to avoid allowing our columns to ba used for the purpose of sickening or maddening people with the terrible history of the past. But we have been very independent, in no way laying ourselves under an obliga. tion to officials, and reserving a free baud to criticise them in whatever we thought it judicious to do in the development of the crisis. To an ordinary mind there does not seem any reason why this fair and above board dealing should give offence to the official mind, but rightly or wrongly it appears to have done so. Our “ Own correspondent’s ” telegrams from Opotiki have been truthful and reliable in every way—as the public have found out easily enough by comparison—and our special reporter, who arrived in Opotiki with the Hussars, has taken oare to be as truthful as he has been expeditious with his news, On Thursday morning the latter at 7.15 o’clock despatched news (marked •• urgent ’’) of the alleged attempt at arrest. This, it will be noted, was smart time to have the news from such a distance in at the telegraph office. The receipt of the telegram at the Gisborne office was timed 7.52, 37 minutes later, but then the message was marked *' detained till 8.40 Inj iiutruetions of the Premier ,” that is, nearly an hour. This delay may have been justifiable on some grounds, and we should not complain if we thought it had been made with the object of serving some good but unexplainable purpose at an awkward- period, but we hold a different view of the matter. However, in spite of delays we had the news published in very quick time. So far al! was well. Much later on in the day an 11 official ” message was wired urgent to our contemporary and of course published, the Standaiid being quietly left out. Perhaps that also wee well, for it is probable we should have ignored the “ official ” information had it been sent, for we do not always regard “ official ” sources as the best. In the evening favoritism was again shown, but by the smartness of our special reporter once more we bad the best of it. Government messages have precedence on the wires, and that was a great disadvantage to be contended with, but though our contemporary received another “ urgent” official message the Standard had the news out first—no small achievement in the face of the difficulties in our path. Who pays for these ” official ” messages 1 we should like to know—the telegrams we reteive have all got to be dearly psidjfor—an

“ urgent ” message costs us double the rates of an ordinary telegram to a private individual, and it does excite one’s curiosity to know if more favored newspapers can get a large amount of their news matter—-or “ official popguns”—for nothing, and why such should bn the case. We are aware we have spoken pretty plainly of certain Ministers that have been known to lionise murderers and patronise blackguardly prize fights; we have had something to say about the insane idea of sending policemen with a warrant for the arrest of a Maori, and not taking care that at least one of them could interpret it; we have commented on the despatching of three or four men to hold an important point, when if things had turned out as expected it would have meant certain death to those men ; we have alluded to the madness of the authorities in allowing Te Kooti to take up a position which offered him every temptation to resort to force or evade his pursuers, as he might easily have done; we have perhaps committed many more terrible sins in the “ official ” eye, and may in days to come be not less sin hardened, but for these and the many more to come we ask not the Lord’s forgiveness, nor even crave the pardon of the officials. Our humble efforts are judged by the bar of public opinion, and that we are never ashamed to face. Our object is to be a leader and not a toady: if we fail in the one we shall never stoop to the other, and as to the “ officialism ” which seeks to take an unfair advantage of us we have the utmost contempt for it, and defy the whole body from the satellites upwards.