Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 2

[trade dispatches]

« It is a bad sign, » writes the Wairarapa Star, in a very melancholy leader, « to find police business dull. It is only at rare intervals that the police can run in a drunken man. » Alas for the good old times!

The Napier News announces that it is doing its best daily to « educate » one of its contemporaries « in geography, history, and politics. » It was, perhaps, with this intention that it published the following information about Cardinal Newman:— « Didn't he have a grand discussion with Gladstone once?—Rather, it was at the time the Vatican degrees (sic) were issued by Pope Leo in 1875. Gladstone wrote a magnificent series of pamphlets etc., against certain doctrines laid down, and Newman went for William Ewart most manfully in his Apologia pro Vita Sua. The discussion created a great sensation at the time, because Newman and Gladstone were old friends. » The Apologia, which, as its name implies, was of a personal character, appeared in 1864, and had its origin in a literary quarrel with Kingsley. The first of Mr Gladstone's pamphlets on the Vatican decrees came out in November, 1874, and the second in 1875. The News must have been reading its « history » backwards.

An East Coast paper which publishes a leader once in about three months has just come out with a long article on the subject of newspapers and and the manner in which they should be conducted. A recent debate at a Mutual Improvement Society, in which the paper appears to have come in for a little wholesome criticism, supplies the groundwork of the article. The opportunity is taken to make a fierce attack upon the Auckand Leader, which « is run by a few Auckland men, who can afford to spend a little money for the purpose of cramming their fads and narrow-bigotry down other people's throats » The paper that thus presumes to stand forth as a representative of New Zealand journalism is a semi-weekly of twenty-four columns, eighteen of which are occupied by « dummies » —the identical paper which we referred to in our article on « Filthy Lucre » as containing an indecent advertisement, which still adorns its columns! The proprietor is not even a journalist, and his paper is apparently run merely as an advertising adjunct to his brewery. The only subjects on which he ever writes are the praise of beer, and the abuse of clergymen and social reformers.

The ingenious comp. of the Patea Press has worked off a most unkind blunder at the expense of a local solicitor: « Mr H., » he tells us, « opened the case, and set out the points on which he lied for a verdict in his favor. » —An Illinois paper, apologising for describing a townsman as a « villainous lounger, » when « versatile lawyer » was intended, explained that the proof-reader, recently from Texas, assured them that the two terms signified much the same thing where he came from.—A Napier paper, in the account of an accident, states that the injured man was placed under the influence of « an esthetic. » —A southern paper, describing a reporter's duties, says: « Fugitives as pirates are drilled into their proper places, » the context revealing that « fugitive aspirates » was intended.—The Wanganui Herald is not going to have a monoply of the splendid printer's error as to the « laver, » for a Napier paper speaks of the Queen's gift to the Pope as a « gold lever. » —A Wairarapa paper reports that a former incumbent of Greytown has been elected to the incumbency of Killesk, which includes the chaplaincy to the « millinery. » This is not a sly allusion to vestments, but a misprint for « military. » —The reporter of the funeral of the late Mr Mackonochie described the officiating priest as, at a certain part of the ceremony, « censing the bier. » The comp., not being versed in ritualistic technicalities, described the rev. gentleman as « cursing the beer. » —Grey hairs, according to a high authority, are honorable. According to the Napier News, they are tolerably lively as well. It reports the following astonishing scientific fact:— « When pursued by a swift dog, the common grey hair jumps about nine feet clear on level ground. » —The Auckland Herald in enumerating the works undertaken by the local harbor board, turned « patching and painting » into « publishing and printing. » The editor attributes the blunder to unconscious cerebration on the part of the comp. Bad copy, more likely.—The Catholic Times, in a leader, says that a certain supposition is « too great a tax on our credibility. »— The N. Z. Methodist has apologised to a reverend lecturer, whose « humorous » address the compositor (sly dog) described as « amorous. » —A paragraph is going the rounds relating to an American merchant who « accumulated over fifteen thousand dollars in half as many years, » and the absurdity of the item does not appear to have been detected.—An erudite Napier newspaper attributes the hymn « From Greenland's icy mountains » to « H. Weber. »