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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 3

[miscellaneous paragraphs]

A New York printer named Dalton has been guilty of an act which is happily as rare as it is shabby. Having a copy of the subscription list of the North American Review, he retained it, and offered to sell it to the editor of the Forum. The latter gentleman communicated with the publisher of the Review, who laid an information against the printer; and he has been committed for trial.

There is some difference of opinion among the newspapers as to the action of the commissioners in abolishing the railway privileges. The change is generally approved by the country press, while some of the town-papers cry out. It is evident that free carriage was all in favor of the city dailies, and placed the country journals at a grievous disadvantage. They are now on an equal footing. The Commissioners will make a great mistake if they weakly restore the privilege.

Describing a new chaff presser, the Christchurch Times says: « The compressing of chaff into as small a space as possible is a matter of great moment to exporters. » It may be added that the art is also of great value to journalists, and if a machine could be introduced into the editorial rooms to perform the operation, it would be highly valued. Under its grip flatulent articles would be solidified, and some—such as the London Daily Telegraph leaders—would be in danger of disappearing altogether.

Advance copies of the « speeches » of the Governor and the President of the exhibition commissioners were given to the press agents in Dunedin on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition, and also an advance account of the ceremony itself, that they might be put in type and published at the earliest possible moment, but on the express understanding that they were not to be prematurely issued. Two morning papers, the Christchurch Times and the Auckland Herald, to steal a march on their evening rivals, published the whole account on the morning of the ceremony, some hours before it actually took place. This may have been « smart, » but was not very honorable; and the result will probably be that in future, on occasions of real importance, « advance » copy will be denied.

A warm dispute is going on between Auckland and Wellington as to the date on which the jubilee of the colony should be observed. Three dates have been suggested: the 22nd January, 1840, when the first band of colonists landed in Wellington; the 29th, when Governor Hobson hoisted the British flag at Kororareka, and the 6th February, when the treaty of Waitangi was signed. It was truly an eventful fortnight fifty years ago when these events happened. As a « jubilee » date, the second may be dismissed at once. The whole discreditable episode of Kororareka is one that the colonists would willingly forget. Thrice was the British flag laid in the dust by the chief Heke; the inhabitants fled, the town was sacked and burnt, and the prostrate flagstaff, nicknamed « Queen Victoria » by the Maoris, was allowed to lie till it rotted away. If the colony dates from the hoisting of the British flag, its true birthday was on the 10th October, 1769, when Cook took possession; and the centenary of this important event was allowed to « slide » without any recognition. The signing of the Treaty was an historical landmark of high importance; but if the jubilee is to mark the beginning of the colonizing of New Zealand in an orderly fashion, there can be no question that the 22nd January is the date to be observed.

The largest funeral ever seen in Australasia was that of a young colonist lately deceased. It took place in Sydney, and about two hundred thousand people attended. Telegrams of condolence were received from all the colonies in such numbers as to suggest an idea to an ingenious editor, who wrote an article, in all good faith, to prove that a basis had now been discovered for « Australian federation. » The Governor sent a message of condolence to the bereaved relatives, and it was even contemplated to place a resolution of public sorrow on the records of Parliament. Places of business were closed, and the day was one of general mourning. Surely a great and good man—a distinguished patriot—had passed away! All this display was in honor of a young man of three-and-twenty, whose name three years ago was unknown. He is said to have been a good son, and exemplary in his other relations; but it was not on account of his virtues that a nation mourned. They were proud of him because he had proved himself an invincible oarsman. He had never suffered the unpardonable disgrace of defeat. Strange reflections are suggested by such a display as this public funeral. Patriotism, integrity, and genius may receive a partial and grudging recognition; but the Australian public have conclusively shown that the idols they worship with all their strength and all their soul and all their mind are Muscle and Success.

page 143

The Government Printer has sent us a guide-book to the Otago Lakes, issued in connexion with the exhibition. Mr Malcolm Boss is the writer, and the work therefore is not « dry » like the average books of this class. There are numerous excellent lithographed illustrations, sketchy in style, by Mr L. W. Wilson, and the frontispiece, showing two beautiful bits of lake scenery, is a finely finished piece of work, bearing the imprint of the Caxton Company, Dunedin.—From the same office we have also two little publications issued by the railway commissioners—a railway guide to the lake district, Southern Alps, and a complete time-table of the New Zealand railways, published at the extraordinarily low price of a penny.

The strike of the « printers' laborers » (says the Stationery Trades Journal for September) was a curious and rather inconvenient episode of the printing business during the past month. It has resulted in the condition of these men being improved all round. They are an anomalous and rather unfortunate class. Until quite lately, they were called « machine lads, » as most, if not all, were originally employed as boys. Growing up, and keeping to the work at boys' wages, the majority of them are men with families. Their wages have averaged about 16s a week, but in many offices there have been chances given them to make a little more by overtime. The effect of the strike has been that the employers have looked into the matter and raised the wages according to skill and service of nearly all of this class of workers. The reasonableness of allowing some sort of increase of wages was generally admitted. Some of the malcontents among the laborers are forming a trade union to secure a minimum rate of 20s a week; but the prospects of this being accomplished are, it, is stated, very uncertain.

A literary giant has passed away in the person of Robert Browning. Popular as other modern poets have been, he was the only one around whose personality has grown a recognized literary sect or party. In this respect he was the Eichard Wagner of poetry, though in all essential qualities the opposite of the German musician. Wagner represented pessimism and the modern renaissance of paganism—Browning optimism and advanced Christian thought. Each had his circle of enthusiastic devotees who held that their hero had anticipated and founded the art of the future in his own particular sphere. Excepting a few pieces, such as the popular « Pied Piper, » Browning's works are little known to the general public. A living poet's writings are always somewhat costly to the great majority of readers, and this specially the case with Browning, who steadily refused to contribute to periodical literature. All his works, poetic and dramatic, bear the mark of learning and high culture, with great originality and eccentricity. His talent for out-of-the-way rhymes is not surpassed, even in the Ingoldsby Legends. In 1846 he married the accomplished Elizabeth Barrett, who is acknowledged to stand at the head of English female poets. She died in 1861, and the loss cast a shadow over the poet's subsequent life. One of his recent publications was a fierce and not unprovoked epigram on Fitzgerald, in whose diary, published posthumously, the editor had unfortunately allowed to pass a foolish entry on the death of Mrs Browning. « Thank God we shall have no more Aurora Leiglis. »

Martin Farquhar Tupper, whose death, at the age of 79, is recorded this month, has been for half-a-century before the world as an industrious writer; and has shared the experience of many another popular author, his last years having been passed in straitened circumstances. Though chiefly known as the author of Proverbial Philosophy, he was the author of many other works, among which may be noted Geraldine (1838), an ambitious attempt at a sequel to Christabel, and Three Hundred Sonnets, published in 1860. Proverbial Philosophy appeared at intervals covering nearly thirty years—in 1838, 1842, and 1867. No other work of our time has had so large and sustained a sale; and none has been so mercilessly condemned by critics and ridiculed by comic writers. Its faults far outnumber its excellencies—it is often commonplace, prosy, and turgid in the extreme; it lacks originality, whole epithets being transferred bodily from Scriptural and other sources, and numerous familiar passages being paraphrased and diluted. Yet it must have possessed certain good qualities to have gained so great and lasting a reputation; and these are to be found chiefly in the fine passages relating to the domestic affections. The author traverses nearly the whole ground of philosophy and theology, and disposes with considerable confidence of some of the profoundest problems that have perplexed humanity. Proverbial Philosophy is unrhymed, and irregular in measure and rhythm. One quality in the good man who has gone demands our respect—his unshaken faith in himself in the face of endless ridicule and burlesque. He felt a touching confidence that he was in the right, and that the world would one day recognize the fact.

Mr J. Macdonald, late manager of The Times, is dead. The news is not surprising. The scurrilous abuse which has been freely cast upon the paper he managed, was in England concentrated upon him personally. In cartoons in some of the Irish papers he was lampooned with a malignity which was simply fiendish. He has passed « to where beyond these voices there is peace, » and we believe that when the secret history of the « forgery conspiracy » comes to light (Truth has incautiously given an important clue) Mr Macdonald's memory will be fully vindicated.

The embodiment of dulness is the colonial Hansard. No one subscribes to it; no living man (except a.proof-reader) could read it. It is costly, and is useless as a record, members having the privilege of tampering with the reports. Sir T. Mcllwraith, a Queensland politician of some prominence, advocates that in future Government advertisements be inserted in Hansard only! Even this would not force its sale. It is shrewdly suspected (judging by advertising methods at present in use), that many Government announcements are not intended to be read; and Sir T. Mcllwraith's proposal, if carried out, would consign this class of literature to as complete obscurity as could be desired.

In its notes on the French exhibition, our Milan contemporary Il Tipografo describes « the invention of a Swiss founder, » Herr Goldschach, of Berne, which saves fifteen per cent, of the time in composition, and twenty per cent, in correction. It is nothing else than a modification of Benton's « self-spacing » system, which has now reached the continent. The characters, we are told, are cast to a set of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9 points; the 4-point letters are 1, c, e, r, s, and v; the 5-point, j, a, b, g, h, k, n, o, p, q, u, x, ff, fi, fl, », t, ?, &c. Il Tipografo questions whether the necessary accuracy will be long maintained, considering the damage inflicted by bodkin and nippers; it also says that the appearance of the work is marred by the letters standing at irregular distances apart. As we have already mentioned, the self-spacing system of The Times is open to the same objection; but this defect is not inherent in the system. No such objection applies to the American types cast on this principle.

George Gordon Bennett (says the Star correspondent) made one of his periodical dramatic descents on the New York Herald's London office on Friday afternoon, and dismissed two-thirds of the entire literary staff, commencing with the news sub-editor. When he said « Go, » he of course meant « in the course of a fortnight unless I change my mind; » but English journalists are not acclimatised to this sort of thing yet, and taking up their hats the lot went there and then, leaving George Gordon to get out his his paper as best he could. Sunday and Monday's Herald were in consequence composed entirely of reprint from the American papers, and Mr Bennett has been considerably laughed at. As he is the sort of a man who can bear anything but ridicule (which is death to him) the Yankee has been pretty severely punished. In future I guess he'll think twice before he treats English journalists like niggers.—The sequel to the incident was that the Bennett, being unable to find another staff, had to reengage all hands!

The death of Mr District Judge Harvey has brought out an anecdote in which one of New Zealand's prominent statesmen figures. The story is well known to all old pressmen in the colony. In the time of the gold-fever in Dunedin, Mr Vogel, a reporter on the Daily Times, just out from Inglewood, Victoria, was sent into the country to report a nomination. Two local men were in the field, and the fight was expected to be a warm one. A tremendous rain just before the nomination day, had rendered a river impassable, and the place of nomination was on the wrong side! On one side were the candidates, with their proposers, seconders, and MS. speeches—on the other was the Returning Officer—and his writ. The reporter with his friend Mr Harvey, a young barrister, drove up; the hour arrived, and the writ was read to an audience of two. « I have the honor to propose Mr Julius Vogel as a fit and proper person to represent this district in the Provincial Council, » said Mr Harvey. « I have much pleasure in seconding the nomination, » said Mr Vogel. The Eeturning Officer turned up the roll, and having satisfied himself that proposer and seconder were duly qualified, declared Mr Julius Vogel duly elected. Thi3 incident—entirely unpremeditated, and carried out more as a practical joke than in serious earnest—was fraught with far-reaching consequences. Mr Vogel speedily came to the front both as a journalist and politician; he entered the General Assembly, became Premier, inaugurated the borrowing policy and an enormous scheme of public works and immigration; and has left on the history of the past twenty years a deeper mark than any other man in New Zealand.