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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 3

[miscellaneous paragraphs]

The editor of the Wairarapa Star is surely a « new chum. » He has seen an earwig, which he calls « an unwelcome visitor to New Zealand, » and says that the insect has not hitherto, to his knowledge, been seen in the colony! He therefore gives an account of the genus from a dictionary. As a matter of fact, the much-abused earwig, though not common in the bush, is among the most familiar of native insects, and we have seen many specimens over an inch in length. Every amateur gardener near the sea-coast knows them well, and any one who has ever turned up a stone or piece of damp wood can scarcely have failed to see them.

In the first page of our first number, we drew attention to the unsatisfactory state of the New Zealand copyright law. The Christ-church Times says that the subject is to receive attention from the Government next session. It adds: « The only protection afforded a New Zealand author, whose work is colonially published, has to be extracted from the old ordinance of 1842. Artists, of course, are secured by the Fine Arts Copyright Act of 1877, and its amending act of two years later. Some nine or ten imperial acts dating from the year 1734 onwards, are either in force for certain purposes, or are supposed to be. What is wanted is a plain, sensible, comprehensive statute, by reading which, author, painter, or playwright, can gain a notion of his real position as a proprietor, what are his rights, and what his duties. We understand that the proposed act will aim at supplying this want. It will deal with books written and published in New Zealand, and with works republished and reprinted here; with magazines, reviews, and serials; with newspapers, so far as original contributions of a literary character to their columns are concerned; with dramatic and musical compositions; with paintings, sculptures, engravings, and photographs. Even lectures will not be forgotten. The first delivery of a lecture will be held a publication, and will secure the lecturer against piracy, either by printing or repetition. That portion of a newspaper dealing with news strictly so-called will not come within the act's scope, and will not interfere with the protection given to cable messages some years ago. A clause in the act will provide for putting the General Assembly Library on the same footing as the British Museum is at home, so far as local publications go. Henceforth a New Zealander will be by law required to forward to the librarian of the General Assembly one copy of the best edition of any book issued from his office. This will apply to newspapers as well as books. »