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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 4
[miscellaneous paragraphs]
A Chinaman recently sent for treatment to the Brisbane (Q.) hospital for the insane, bore the ominous name of Ah Si Lum.
At the Colchester Police Court lately, a newspaper-man had a painful experience. A woman who had summoned a neighbor, illustrated in a very realistic manner an assault that the defendant was alleged to have committed. Leaning over the witness box, she seized the hair of the nearest reporter, tugging at it with such vigor as to lift the unhappy man from his seat. The reporter warmly protested against being made the subject of such treatment, and the bench bound over the complainant, as well as the defendant, to keep the peace. Insult was added to injury, for the incident was one of those at which it was impossible for unregenerate humanity not to laugh.
page 82
Colonists, already overburdened with innumerable statutes and ordinances, are indebted to the ubiquitous book-fiend for the latest experiment in legislation. The Book Purchasers' Protection Bill, introduced into the New South Wales Legislature, provides that the vendor or his agent—in reality the canvasser—shall give to the purchaser at the time of agreement a duplicate of the agreement signed. If he fails to do this he will be subject to a penalty not exceeding £5, to be recovered in a summary manner. It further provides that the total amount of liability incurred by the subscriber shall be distinctly printed in red on the face of the document.
On the 16th inst., in the House of Representatives, Sir John Hall drew attention to « a gross breach of privilege » on the part of the Wellington Press, in publishing what purported to be a report of the proceedings that morning of a committee of inquiry into certain charges brought against members of the Ministry by Mr. Hutchison. The report was in some respects correct, but it also contained some serious misrepresentations, and as the proceedings were private, there was no chance of any contradiction appearing. He thought it a case for the interference of the House. He did not, however, make it a matter of a specific motion, and after some desultory discussion, « the matter dropped. » — It may be added that the Press has published daily reports of the proceedings of the committee.
Mr. W. H. J. Seffern, of Taranaki, closes some very interesting reminiscences of the late Exhibition thus: « But my vision is not all told. I find myself in a deep study in the Early History Court, where all the curiosities of the South Seas were collected. I had been looking at the old newspapers, and my eye was soon fixed on one I knew something about. It was the Auckland Weekly Register, and was published on February 7th, 1857. The front page only was visible, but I see, in my mind's eye, on the imprint at the back the name of Alfred Charles Burton as the printer and publisher of it. Three-and-thirty years have passed since that paper was first published. I remember the day well. Where was he who printed it? What an age it seemed since then! In a reverie, thinking of the past—thinking of Alfred Charles Burton, and—I faced him—he the head of the successful firm of photographers in Dunedin, and I —well at my same old vocation. »