The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published Every Tuesday, Thursday, AND Saturday Morning. Thursday, May 22, 1890. STRAIGHT TALK.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 457, 22 May 1890, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published Every Tuesday, Thursday, AND Saturday Morning.

Thursday, May 22, 1890. STRAIGHT TALK.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s, Thy God's, and truth’s.

The last number of the Auckland Observer (for which Mr Adams is the local agent), deals with the recent copyright cases, in an article which is none the less stinging because of its manifest truth. As we have no wish to be further entangled in the meshes of the law —for the delight of a chuckling rival which has been busily pulling the strings, and like the cuttlefish hiding itself behind the murky veil it has thrown forth —we shall content ourselves by thinking much and saying little concerning the strictures which the Observer makes upon the Press Association. That journal, however, it may fairly be pointed out, is a thoroughly independent critic, without bias towards either side, and this is what it says—- “ Appeal has been lodged against the decision in the case, and I have no doubt the conviction will be quashed, as it richly deserves to be.”

The same journal goes on to throw more light upon the workings of the Press Association, and the outcome of its political influence, the Observer declaring that “ a more immoral statute was never enacted in a professedly Christian country ” than that under which the Press Association instituted the recent proceedings. Of course those who have some knowledge of the “ wheels within wheels ” could greatly enlighten the public on the wrinkles that aie employed, and a perusal of the trenchant article in the Observer will perhaps serve to open the eyes of many people as to the great monopoly which seeks to crush out those newpapers that dare to move independently of the magic circle—to crush them out, not by ordinary process which might be forgiven, but by a shower of actions at law, so as to heap up expenses. “ Now that the question has been raised,” says our Auckland contemporary, “ the Observer throws its weight in with the little brother whom the big brothers are trying to crush.” Well, we shall feel grateful for the assistance, but we can assure our contemporary that it is not the respectable papers that we fear. The proprietors may think it a fair thing for the machinery of the law to be set in motion in certain cases, and in a sense they can hardly be blamed. But it is the miserable pettifogging prints that clutch at straws to prevent their sinking before successful rivalry—who have created the trouble and got the Association into a mess which will cause sensible people to ask awkward questions, and a mess which gives such outspoken papers as the Observer an opportunity to prove that they are not bound up in the monopoly which holds so many papers in its grip.