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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 2
[trade dispatches]
Dr Charles Mackay, the poet, in his 73rd year, is in reduced circumstances.
A young and gifted colonial orator, who lectures on the life of a young and gifted Irish patriot, is on his rounds. Newspapers will do wisely by requiring cash in advance for this gentleman's advertisements.
We have received No. 52 of the Boomerang, a threepenny weekly, published in Brisbane, Queensland. It is on the lines of the Sydney Bulletin, and is chiefly occupied with local matters. It has a full-page portrait, roughly executed, of Sir W. Jervois, who is described as a « candidate » for the Governorship of Queensland! This is the biggest joke in the paper.
Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs, printers and bookbinders, Christchurch, were on the 1st November fined 2s and 7s costs for keeping eight young women and three youths at work after 2 p.m. on Saturday, October 28th. The girls were employed folding the sheets as they came from the printing room, and were at work in the bookbinding department on the upper floor. The case was brought as a test, and the defence was that the work was incidental to printing. We have no desire to quarrel with the well-meant legislation under which this penalty was inflicted, though we doubt its wisdom. But it is worthy of note that under the fiscal arrangements of the same Parliament, sewing women are toiling in Dunedin at 4d and 8d a day.
Telegraph muddles are common enough; but they are rarely so bad as the following cable message dated 23rd September, which appeared in all the New Zealand papers. « The members of the various districts of the Wesleyan body have been discussing a report drawn up by a majority of the education commission. In every instance the sectarian advocates were defeated, and much ill-feeling was aroused in consequence. The Revs. Messrs Rush and Garrett, both prominent supporters of the liberal side of the question, were announced to take part in the service at the Wesleyan memorial chapel, Epworth (birthplace of Wesley), but crowds of Methodists thronged the place, and prevented the service being held. Messrs Rush and Garrett were attacked with stones and fled, pursued by an exciting throng. » Some of the papers indulged very freely in comments on the « militant Methodists » of Epworth. The N.Z. Methodist, after a detailed examination of the item, declared it to be incomprehensible, and the more carefully-edited dailies took the same view. Mail news now brings reports of the meeting, but no word of the alleged riot. It would be interesting to compare the original cable message with the expanded version circulated by the ingenious press agent. Unless more care is taken in transcribing cable news for publication, the Press Association may have to defend some big libel actions before long.