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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 3

[trade dispatches]

We have referred repeatedly to the hardship suffered by country papers at the hands of public officials, who, in defiance of the plainest statutory provisions, send public notices to favorite newspapers in distant cities, to the entire exclusion of the local organ. The Cromwell Argus, which is a sufferer from this invidious practice, wrote to headquarters on the subject, and received the following reply: « Mines Department, Wellington, 29th August, 1889. Sir,—In reply to your memo, of 21st inst., I have the honor, by direction of the Honorable Minister of Mines, to inform you that section 32 of The Mining Companies Act, 1886, provides that half-yearly statements must be published in a newspaper circulating in the locality where the company carries on its operations, which means the place where actual operations are carried on, and not at the head office of the company, which might be outside the Colony. H. J. H. Elliott, Under-Secretary. » —This is good law and good sense, but he would be a very sanguine man who would expect it to be acted upon. « Jack-in-office » is simply incorrigible.

A travelling correspondent of the Union Printer (New York), writing from Napier, New Zealand, is somewhat inaccurate. While Napier work, and bookwork in particular, will bear comparison with that produced anywhere in Australasia, it is saying too much to describe this city as « the most important from a printer's standpoint. » As regards quantity turned out, it comes a long way behind the four large cities, though it stands well at the head of the smaller ones. The reference to Typo is correct, but it is a mistake to say that « the Times and Herald are the foremost daily papers, and there are others published which furnish employment to about 200 printers. » The Times was discontinued fourteen years ago, and the number of hands employed in Napier is greatly exaggerated. The Government Printing Office in Wellington is disposed of in three lines. « The Leader and Herald are the principal papers published in Auckland » is a good joke. The Herald is the leading daily; the Leader is a struggling temperance weekly, about the size of Typo. « Dunedin is the Boston of the Colony. » This is not a bad hit. Dunedin always has been the most active publishing centre in New Zealand.

Describing a Masonic installation at Dunedin, the Wellington Times says « there was a large attendance of Maoris. » ( « Masons » was intended!)— « A Spring Cart-horse, in good condition, » is advertised for sale in Wanganui.—A North Island paper says: « A misprint occured in our paragraph about the milk suppliers and the cheese factory in last issue. The words « provided half the money was returned » should have been « provided half the whey was returned. » — « But as Byron says,

There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. »

So quotes an able contemporary in the far-away South. Mr Ignatius Donnelly may retire, as gracefully as he may, after this new guess at the authorship of Julius Cæsar.— « The Empress of Austria, who is visiting Italy, has been kissed in several places by the populace. » So runs a telegram in a Napier paper. « Hissed » was the word, but the comp's gallantry led him to correct the supposed error.— « And like-wise, men as they are, they could not see it, » is a feat of punctuation lately achieved by a South Island compositor.—A Reefton paper advertises a curious programme of an entertainment. It contains the following items: « Comic operetta, in two acts, entitled After an Interval of Ten Minutes. To be followed by the very amusing and laughable drama entitled Doors open at 7.30. To commence at 8 p. m. Fruit Trees. » —At a country concert in Nelson, according to the Colonist, « a local gentleman on a visit to the district » gave his assistance. In correcting the blunder the editor said it was « evidently » a printers error! The patient newspaper-comp needs a broad back, for his burden is heavy.—The Wairarapa Star has gained quite a local reputation for blunders, typographical and otherwise. « All efforts proved fertile » is not a bad attempt for a juvenile comp; but the original comparison, « as cold-blooded as a whale, » applied to a certain politician, indicates that the editor is not well-informed as to the physiology of the larger mammalia.