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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 4
[miscellaneous paragraphs]
The new postal rate to England has added two to the list of New Zealand postage stamps, the new values being 2½d and 5d. In design they bear no resemblance to the existing series.
We have to thank the Australasian Shorthand Journal for a complete file. This neat little magazine is so full of press items of interest that we feel tempted to « annex » the greater part of its contents!
The London edition of the New York Herald, after undergoing a reduction in size owing to mechanical (?) difficulties, was discontinued at the end of September. The cause of its decease was simple enough— London would not stand a seven-day newspaper.
A correspondent of the Shorthand Journal, in reference to an insult offered to the profession by certain mine-owners, says that « reporters themselves want to be told pretty sharply how they ought to uphold the dignity of the profession. » This remark applies to New Zealand also, as an incident recorded by us in our September issue sufficiently proves. The editor of the Journal says: « If reporters will persist in being snubbed there is no use for an Association. »
The Wanganui Chronicle says: The Rangitikei Advocate has changed hands at a satisfactory figure, and will be handed over to the new proprietors as soon as the necessary preliminaries have been settled. Mr Kirkbride offered the property, we understand, to Mr Arkwright early in October last, but the latter did not avail himself of the opportunity to secure an organ. Mr Kirkbride has managed the paper with conspicuous ability and success during the seventeen years he has had it, and has made it one of the very best country newspaper properties in the colony. (Mr Arkwright, it may be added, is the recently-defeated candidate for the Rangitikei district.)
Mr C. P. Moody, who followed the Australian Eleven during their home trip, on behalf of the Argus and other journals, has returned to Adelaide, has resumed his position on the Register staff, and is doing « Hansard. »
New Zealand is the recruiting-field for the great Australian newspapers. The latest promotion is that of Mr H. J. Taperell, chief of the reporting staff of the Wellington Times to the Sydney Telegraph. We wish him all success.
We learn from the Shorthand Journal the Victorian Reporters' Association has provided its members with a badge of membership. Instructions have been issued to the metropolitan police to recognize the badge on all occasions when the presence of reporters is necessary.
The editor of a newspaper published at Bourke (N.S.W.) has been removed from the local magistracy in consequence of an article reflecting in strong terms on the private character of the Prince of Wales having appeared in his paper. No doubt the article appearing in so influential a quarter was exceedingly damaging to his Royal Highness.
James Thompson, Coshocton, 0., (says the National Publisher and Printer), is probably the youngest political writer in Ohio. He contributes to the Democratic Standard, and his writings have attracted a good deal of attention in that part of the State. [We would like to be able to see the criticisms of Mr Thompson at 45 on his published articles written at 15.]
The Evening Standard Newspaper Company (Limited), Melbourne, has undergone the usual experience of joint-stock newspaper companies, and is trying to sell to another company. The cost of running the Standard was about £942 a week, the total for the half-year ending 31st October last being £23,595. The debit balance at the commencement of the period, representing former losses, was £9994, and at the end of the half-year it had riscn to £12,640. The assets are described as very fragile.
Acting under the instructions of the Premier of New South Wales, the Under-Secretary has written to Mr W. N. Willis, m.l.a., and enclosed an extract from a newspaper of which he is the reputed proprietor, asking whether, in view of that treasonable publication, Mr Willis had any reason to advance why he should not be removed from the magistracy as a person unfit to hold her Majesty's Commission. The paragraph forwarded to Mr Willis recommended unionists to provide themselves with repeating rifles and ammunition in order to be in a better position to enforce their demands.
The New South Wales Reporters' Association, according to the Shorthand Journal for December, is in a bad way. The editor says: « We remember, something over a year ago, reading all about the wonderful Institute of Journalists in New South Wales. Even that high-sounding name did not carry them to prosperity. Without one single act to benefit reporters, the institute died, and out of its ashes rose a branch of the Reporter's Association. The reporters outside of New South Wales imagined that it would rise like the Phoenix of old, but the expectation has not been fulfilled. »
The Manawatu Standard is to change hands at the beginning of the year, Mr A. M'Minn, who has been the proprietor for the past ten years, having disposed of it to Mr Fred Pirani, the unsuccessful candidate at the late election. Mr Pirani may yet be able to write m.h.r. after his name.
Mr J. F. Byrne, of the literary staff of the Geelong Advertiser, was presented, on the 25th October, by the journalists of the city, and the mechanical staff of the Advertiser, with a handsome gift on the occasion of his leaving to take a position on the Melbourne Age.
The new threepenny stamp on the British Empire postal card is really artistic. The central vignette is a perfect copy of Professor von Angeli's celebrated full-length portrait of her Majesty, reduced to something under an inch in height; and the engraving is of the highest class. As the postal rate for letters to New Zealand is now 2½d, and the postal card 3d, it is not likely that a great number of the latter will find their way here.
Mr Fletcher Johnston, son of the late Mr Justice Johnston (N.Z.), who has for some time been acting as law reporter on the South Australian Register, leaves that paper at the end of December. He is already a New Zealand barrister, and is staying in Adelaide to qualify himself for admittance to the local bar. So says the Shorthand Journal. We may add that his father, while qualifying in London many years ago, practised law reporting, and his name is to be found in the capacity of law reporter in old volumes of the Law Journal reports.