.jpg)
Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 2
[trade dispatches]
The Napier public reading room has been closed for want of support. Yet the « rinks » are doing a flourishing cash business, and at a minor race meeting lately, nearly £4000 went through the « totalizator. » No wonder trade is dull, when money is thus squandered.
Mr A. D. Willis has added two more to his series of views of New Zealand cities. These are excellent views of Wellington and Napier. The latter is from a recent photograph specially taken by Mr S. Carnell. It is published by R. C. Harding,Napier.
Those who covet the new styles exhibited in our supplement, can obtain them through the Continental Export and Agency Company, Dunedin and Auckland, who represent Messrs Schelter & Giesecke in New Zealand. In order to form an approximate estimate of the price it is sufficient for all practical purpose to read « M. » or mark as one shilling, and « kg. » or kilogram, as 2lb.
The stupid war-scare of two years ago, which cost the colony over a million sterling, and brought several foreign cruisers on visits of inspection, is now finding a parallel in the home country. The Daily Telegraph has published some panic-stricken articles, which are producing incalculable mischief. Contractors for warlike stores will profit; but the productive interests of the country will have to pay the bill.
That the printing art is a rapidly progessive one is a truism. In fact, so fast do new inventions and improvements succeed each other, that only those who regularly read their trade journals have any idea of what is being done. On pages 43-41 our readers will note some of the new ideas. We carefully exclude applications for patents for untried processes, and our record—which might have been indefinitely extended—is almost exclusively confined to the latest discoveries and inventions.
Subscribers' parts of the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia have just reached Napier. This is the most magnificent piece of printing ever attempted this side of the equator, and one of the finest illustrated books in the world. We do not like the old-style type; but this is a matter of taste. The wood-engravings are exquisite, both in design and execution. As an artistic piece of bookwork, the Atlas is faultless, with one grave exception—the lithographed borders which disfigure the fine plates at the beginning of the work. They are altogether obnoxious and indefensible, and were wisely discontinued after about half-a-dozen plates were issued. We hope these plates will be reprinted without the borders, for the benefit of those who wish to bind the volumes: otherwise, to all lovers of fine engraving, they will prove a standing eyesore. The literary merits of the work are quite in keeping with its artistic beauty.
The libel case Martin v. Evening Post was reported in our January number. The plaintiff, who was unsuccessful, applied for a new trial on the following grounds:—(1) That the verdict for the defendants was against the weight of evidence; (2) that the Judge ought to have directed the jury that a fair report of the proceedings before a coroner is not privileged; (3) that if a fair report is privileged, that his Honor ought to have directed the jury that the article was not merely comment or criticism, but contained defamatory statements of fact provable. The application was considered a few days ago by the Chief Justice and Mr Justice Richmond sitting in banco in Wellington. The decision is of special interest, inasmuch as it settles three important points affecting the privileges of newspapers in connexion with the law relating to coroners' courts. The court, without calling on counsel for defence, affirmed that a fair report of the proceedings in a coroner's court is privileged, that fair comment on such proceedings is privileged, and that it is the function of the jury and not for the Judge to decide whether an article is libellous or not. For these reasons a new trial was refused. This is the first definite decision on these points given in this colony.