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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 72

Southland Times

Southland Times.

Even if we could persuade ourselves that the Honourable John McKenzie was the heaven-born lands administrator that he believes himself to be, the wonder would remain how he had ever stepped so far beyond his province as to become the designer of an amendment of the libel law. There is within the Cabinet the Hon. Mr. Reeves, a scholar, a journalist, and a man of letters, who may be supposed to have studied the bearings of the present statute on journalism, and to be capable of saying how far it is defective and in what direction capable of improvement. But that the Minister of Lands should have left his domain of the plough and the shepherd's crook, and should have assumed, on such a subject, to think and devise for his colleagues, is, we repeat, a phenomenon that requires explanation. The best solution would seem to be that the whole thing is a pleasant farce, and that the burly Minister is being allowed his swing in an enterprise that will hurt nobody and that will end in nothing. That the origin of the wretched little Bill is a personal one nobody will be disposed to doubt. There has been no call for it from the outside. No public opinion has been pronounced on the subject. Not a word has been said in Parliament on the particular aim of the Bill so as to make it a living question in politics. Even the Premier, who will make an excursus into any region of discussion under the sun—whatever he may know about it—even he, as far as we are aware, has never indicated that he thinks that press writing should cease to be anonymous. Yet with all this quietude and contentment with things as they are, a solitary individual rushes into the arena and, with whatever authority belongs to him as a Minister, insists that in an essential point our whole journalistic system shall be overturned. We all know the motive. Mr. McKenzie has been hit hard by the press, and no one has more amply deserved the castigation which that instrument can so sharply inflict, and of which only tyrants and wrong-doers are afraid. He has felt the stings and winces under them, and he wants at least the paltry gratification of knowing who it is that has stung him. Mr. McKenzie has made a good many men afraid of him, and he wishes to increase the circle of those who may be deterred from crossing his path, and hence his little Bill. No doubt he would go a good deal further if he dared. It seems almost a mistake that he was not born in Russia, with the knout ready to his hand and Siberia at his back. But seeing that Providence has ordered otherwise, we might be willing to make easy terms with the Czar for his tranference, although he himself, when he bangs over us the threat of his resignation, seems to regard that as the greatest calamity that could overtake the colony . . . . .

We are not on this occasion going to discuss the merits or demerits of the present system. It is enough to say that it exists probably to the satisfaction of everyone who is not, like Mr. McKenzie, anxious, on personal grounds, to penetrate the secrets of the press. Several advantages are obvious in the anonymous method as an optional one to writers whether of letters or articles; and it is plain that discussion of matters of interest to the public would often be injuriously restricted if men and women could write only on condition of declaring their identity. The proof that the privilege of anonymity is valued is to be found in the extent to which it is availed of wherever a newspaper is published. It will be quite time enough to do away with such a privilege when its advantages and disadvantages have been fully canvassed, and when the balance of public opinion has been declared against it. It is not yet clear what attitude the Government will take in regard to Mr. McKenzie's Bill, but page 45 it would be most unfair and unwise if party strength were invoked to carry such a measure. The main point of the Bill is not one that falls to be decided by political feeling, and members should be allowed to give or withhold their support according to individual conviction. Should party pressure be absent, we have little fear of the measure becoming law; and even if the whip were applied, it is just possible that the new revolt might operate to its defeat.