.jpg)
Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 3
[trade dispatches]
The proprietors of the Sydney Evening News have given £500 to the various hospitals in Sydney, on account of the Sydney Morning Herald refusing to be recompensed for their generosity in connection with the disastrous fire at the News office.
At a recent meeting of the Nelson Education Board, Mr Harkness said he wished to speak on a matter of privilege. In the Evening Mail of the day after the last meeting of the Board, there was a paragraph to the effect that Mr Clayden had stated that he had hoped that Mr Harkness and Mr Hurst-house would have said something relative to the recent libel case, but on looking round he found that the birds had flown; and there were also some editorial comments on the same subject. The fact was that he was in the next room reading a paper, and heard nothing of what was said. Previous to the last meeting he had waited on the proprietors of the Mail with the intention of offering to pay a considerable sum towards their expenses in the recent action, but he was not very graciously received by the senior partner, and therefore he turned on his heel and left the office, feeling rather hurt. Since then he had again been to the office and had been received more courteously, and had made arrangements to pay a large sum. He wished further to express his great regret that the proprietors of the Mail should have been put to any expense through remarks that had been quite innocently made by himself and Mr Hursthouse.
We have received a bulky « Commercial Handbook and Directory » from a trade protection association; about one third of its contents consisting of (avowed) advertisements. When a company of this character enters into competition with ordinary publishers of books of reference, it might be expected to produce a volume which should possess some special features to commend it to the public. It has but one—an index of bills of sale and mortgages for the year, occupying about fifty pages. There is a very bare calendar, giving a few anniversaries—some of them incorrect. The « reference matters is continually interrupted by advertisements—which is not of much consequence, as it is itself of the same quality. The « tourists' guide » is a succession of puffs of hotels; « local industries, » of various advertising firms; and the so-called « commercial directory » is nothing more than a list of subscribers to the association. As a book of reference the work is not to be compared with the poorest local directory published in New Zealand, by private enterprise. It is no credit to the compilers, and is calculated to convey an entirely erroneous idea of the colony and its resources.
A Timaru bookselling firm, who lost the sale of their Christmas periodicals through neglect on the part of a shipping company, sent in a claim for £10, which the company refused to recognize. They therefore publicly exhibited the cover of the packing-case (which was marked « Mail Periodicals for immediate transshipment » ), with a placard stating that « This mail case was seventeen days in transshipment from Wellington to Timaru. »
Miss Lowe, the editress of the Queen newspaper, was appointed many years ago, when entirely without literary experience and not out of her teens. Sergeant Cox's quick eye for business, and extraordinary insight into what was likely to pay, were soon justified. He bought the Queen when it was at low ebb for about £700; its circulation under Miss Lowe's able editing soon rose, and at the present time it brings in over £12,000 a year.
One of our contemporaries has written a paragraph « to show one of the many unknown acts of our gracious Queen to stimulate the efforts of her colonies in development of their resources and to patronize the industry of the people. » It is a little disappointing, after so grand an introduction, to find that all he has to record is this—that her Majesty has accepted a gift of ostrich feathers from a colonist, and that her private secretary has sent the donor a letter of thanks!
Mr C. L. Garland, a former resident of New Plymouth, now on a visit to the hot springs for the benefit of his health, has just been returned for the third time to Parliament, by a large majority for the important constituency of Carcoar, N.S.W. Mr Garland is only thirty-four years of age, has not been quite ten years settled in New South Wales, and was absent from the colony during the whole campaign. He is a newspaper proprietor, and one of the leaders of the Freetrade party. In his wife, an Australian woman, he has found a true helpmeet. She exercises great influence on account of her personal worth, her many charities, and her rare abilities. In her husband's absence on Parliamentary duties she takes the entire management of his newspaper; and during the late political campaign she has fought the battle for him, calling meetings in nearly every polling-place in the great Carcoar electorate.