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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 5
[miscellaneous paragraphs]
Last year we described the new Olympic initials brought out by Brendler & Marklowsky, Vienna. The initial on our first page is one of this fine series. The headpiece on page 6 is one of a new series by Miller & Richard, others of which will follow in successive issues.
Just as we were closing this number, we received through our home agent, a quarto specimen-book from the Rudhard Foundry, Offenbach-am-Main, and a sample-font of their latest combination border, entitled the Humoristische-Fantasie, containing fifty characters. These will be more fully noted, and the combination illustrated, in our next issue.
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During the holiday season the eyes of the public have been more than ever irritated with the most ugly and indefensible of all abbreviations, « Xmas. » Sometimes, by way of change, « 'Xmas, » or « X'mas » — an indication of the extent to which illiterate boy-labor is employed in certain offices. Formerly this nuisance was confined to the advertising columns; but now it has spread beyond these limits, and last month we met it used uniformly throughout a Christmas leading article. It is slovenly enough in manuscript: in print it is intolerable. !A Greek initial with a Saxon affix!
A strange and sad incident of the late general election was the death of the Maori member, Sydney Taiwhanga, on the very day that he was returned by an overwhelming majority for the Northern Maori district, and a few hours before the numbers were declared. Poor Sydney was noted for his eccentricities; he spoke a barbarous pidgin-English in a harsh voice, and was something of a humbug, but, after all, there were pakeha members who spoke worse and who neither in ability nor political character, stood as high; and some of them are in their old places. Taiwhanga was not in the habit of taking advantage of the privilege of Parliament to make statements that he would not have ventured to repeat outside.
The irritation between the two labor camps has not quite subsided, and some of the unionists who have gone back to their old places have prejudiced their comrades' chances by organized and intolerable persecution of the workmen engaged during the strike. Complaints having been made that the Union Steamship Company boycotted unionists, the company's manager replied that in no case had such a course been adopted, but that the company would find itself compelled to exclude unionists if the system of persecuting non-unionists was continued. Under date of 17th January, Mr D. P. Fisher, secretary of the Trades Council, addressed a letter to the manager of the company, portions of which we quote on account of the good spirit they display: « If you make inquiries I am sure you will find that union men do not get the same chances as the so-called free men. Doubtless you are justified in referring to the action of unionists during the strike, but in your reference you went a little too far when you stated that they used every means to stop the trade of the colony. Your quarrel was with the unskilled section of unionists only, which is by far the least important section. Had all the trades been involved in the strike your reference to the trade of the colony would have been correct. My Council represents the skilled section, and the trades have no other object in writing than to point out how much better it would be for your company and the colony if the wise thoughts expressed by the Hon. George McLean, which I quoted in my previous letter, were given effect to. To forget the past, as far as feelings were concerned, is surely more righteous than that both sides should continue to nurse wrath; to correct its mistakes is the duty of all. The anxieties of the past, as far as relates to you, and the misery and desolation it has brought to those workers primarily concerned in the strike, should have a beneficial effect on future arrangements made between employer and employed. That there should be a just understanding between these two interests is the opinion of my Council. My Council are very much grieved at learning that unionists in your employ are using every effort to sow discontent amongst the freemen. Such conduct should not be tolerated, and those who practice it will certainly not receive any encouragement from my Council. The hope is expressed, however, that you will thoroughly satisfy yourself as to the bona fides of these charges. »
A contemporary hopes that during the coming year the English papers may discuss colonial subjects with more intelligence and less ignorance. Good; and the sentiment is equally applicable with the adjectives transposed.
The Wairarapa Daily thinks that the election of working men to Parliament was an experience the colony might have expected sooner or later; and that the result will be in some respects a disappointment to the party. It has something to say about so-called labor representatives who have nothing in common with the party returning them, and significantly asks: « ؟What is the lesson when we see constituencies in various parts of the colony returning men as legislators who, in private life, are regarded as distinctly vicious and unworthy? »
A contemporary is indignant at what it considers base ingratitude. A workman employed on a new building belonging to a wealthy man, fell from the roof, and sustained injuries which laid him up in the hospital for six months, during which time the owner of the house liberally paid him full wages. At the late election the workman voted against this man, and actively assisted his successful opponent. Our contemporary has strange ideas of political ethics. If the workman thought, as he probably did, that he was supporting the best man, he did no more than his duty.
The Federated Trades Council, Wellington, have made an excellent movement in opening a free reading-room in the Trades Hall. A large number of colonial papers are already sent free; and we would be glad to see more. The papers are all carefully filed for reference. Gifts of magazines, technical books, &c., will be appreciated. The reading-room is open to all; and will be specially useful to men out of work, as affording a more attractive resort than the streets or the public-house. We understand that there is some idea of starting a series of technical and literary lectures in connection with the institution. We hope that the idea will be carried into effect.
« !Look for me in Hansard! » proudly exclaimed a newly-fledged M.H.R. to his friends the other day. The entire abolition of this costly and mischevious production would be one of the greatest boons that could happen to the colony. An excellent staff of reporters is engaged, but their work does not see the light. Members strike out what they did say, and put in what they did not say; and speeches appear which were never delivered, and which no man would have listened to if they had been. From the publication of the first volume, the tone of Parliament has steadily declined. The colony has by this time paid probably £100,000 for work which would have been more faithfully and efficiently performed by private enterprise. It ministers to the vanity of the worst class of representatives, and is without literary or historic value. The public will begin to believe that the economists are in earnest when they unite to abolish Hansard.
Mr Steve Boreham, in his speech at Naseby on the labor question, hit the working man pretty hard. « The object of unionism was not altogether the protection of the laboring classes from their employers, but rather the protection of working men against their fellow-laborers. There were many people always crying out that the employers were always doing their utmost to grind down their laborers, but this was not so, as the principal difficulty was between the workers themselves. » This point he illustrated by the cut-throat competition between laboring men for contracts, which, he said, « proved conclusively that working men were their own enemies, and they were simply showing what fools and idiots they were. » After which, with curious inconsistency, he went on to blame the employers for all the late labor troubles, and said that no working man would incur the loss and misery of a strike if he could possibly prevent it.
The eleventh Parliament of New Zealand was opened by commission on the 23rd January. The Premier, on account of failing health, had resigned his seat, and was appointed to the Speakership of the Legislative Council, vacant by the resignation of Sir W. Fitzherbert. Each of the three parties had selected a candidate for the vacant Speakership of the Lower House, and on this question it was understood that the trial of strength would take place. The labor party, however, recognizing their comparative weakness, did not propose their candidate (Mr Fish), and joined forces with the Opposition, whose candidate, Major Steward, was elected by 36 votes to 29. This is the first time that a Speaker in New Zealand has been elected by a party vote. The Ministry resigned, and Mr Ballance, who was sent for, lost no time in forming a Ministry, which was sworn in on the following day. It is quite different from any of the lists of names published in anticipation, and includes the best men of the party. Curiously enough the labor or middle party, to whose assistance Mr Ballance owes his success, are ignored.