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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 5
[miscellaneous paragraphs]
Mr Traill, a New South Wales politician, advocates a « State newspaper, » which shall contain parliamentary reports, such official documents as the ministry think the general public should be acquainted with, reports of deputations to ministers, &c. In order the more effectually to smash the free press, it is to solicit advertisements, and to be delivered gratis and post-free to every voter in the colony. At the same time, it is to be « worked on ordinary business principles. » This is going even farther than in New Zealand, where some of the most prominent members of the ministry own and find time to edit newspapers which are little other than semi-official gazettes. Independent journalists—and electors too—will recognize the Traill of the Socialistic Serpent in this outrageous proposal.
The Wairoa Guardian may not be in every respect a model newspaper; but the peculiarly isolated nature of its district makes it an absolutely indispensable local organ. The chief city of the province, Napier, is forty miles away; communication by land is tedious and difficult, the country being rough; and by sea is sometimes interrupted for weeks together. The action of the local county council, therefore, in withdrawing the official advertising absolutely from the local paper and sending it to Napier cannot be justified on any grounds, economical or otherwise. The local paper tendered at 2s an inch, and half-price for subsequent insertions—a perfectly fair rate; the Napier paper, though its nominal scale was 5s, secured the contract at 1s per inch all round. There could scarcely be a greater absurdity than for the county to advertise local contracts in a distant paper, having a very limited circulation in the district, and occasionally arriving a week or ten days after date. As the copy has to be telegraphed, the extra shilling per inch of the local paper is more than swallowed up in wire charges.
We don't like our original articles cribbed without acknowledgment, and we rarely have cause of complaint in this respect. Nor do we like to see the fruit of other folk's thought and labor attributed to us in error. In the American Art Printer for September is a useful table of the number of leads to a pound, credited to Typo. It is not ours, and never appeared in our pages. Probably it is from Type, the organ of the Dickinson Foundry.
The first quarterly meeting of the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Institute of Journalists took place at the office of the Press Association on the 1st December. There was a good attendance of members, Mr E. T. Gillon (chairman of the branch) presiding. The secretary reported that since last meeting the treasurer and he had issued circulars to all country journalists in the neighboring districts who had not become members of the branch, urging upon them the advisableness of joining the branch as soon as possible. Several answers had been received to the circular from journalists anxious to join, and a number of country gentlemen were elected members. It was decided that three country members should be elected on the committee of the branch, as provided by the rules recently confirmed, and the election took place at once, the following gentlemen being returned: Messrs R. Price (Napier), E. A. Haggen (Woodville), and W. H. J. Seffern (New Plymouth). It was stated that the membership of the branch had already reached, in round numbers, fifty, entitling it to further representation on the council of the Institute. It was decided that at the next quarterly meeting the proceedings should take a social form, when a paper or two should be read by members, and ladies should be invited. A short discussion took place on the question of the quality of the « flimsy » supplied by the Telegraph Department to the newspapers with telegraphic copy, and generally the article at present in use in the department was condemned.
« Herr Bladderadatsch, the German writer, » according to the Sydney Sunday Times, has been proceeded against for speaking irreverently of the « holy » coat of Tréves.—A Wanganui paper, evidently not conducted by a Scotsman, refers to the barque Lock Nagar.— « In the Legislative Council, » a contemporary reports, « the East and West Coast railway line was discussed. The opinions expressed were for the most part unpardonable. » —A Wanganui paper reports that a resident has been fined for « shooting a pakeha out of season. » The alleged homicide who thus escaped with a fine, had probably shot a pukeko, the native rail or swamp-hen.—Wairarapa is of course to the fore. In the advertisements a lady who announces that she has taken charge of an hotel adds that she « will carry on as before »; and a baker, with remarkable candor, proclaims that « in bread no effort will be made to provide a wholesome loaf. » « The accused, » says another paper in the same district, « is to be buried at Waikoko. » — In a good many papers, a late home telegram reads: « Sir Charles Butt, President of the Probate, Divorce, and Adultery Division of the High Court of Justice. » —Another curious item of news has been constructed from the names of winning horses, and « Signorina, Orme, Martagon, » formed the basis of an item in a Wanganui paper that Signorina Orine Martagon had sacked a town in Missouri.—In like manner, some years ago, « Highland Chief, M'Alpine, Chislehurst, » became « The highland chief M'Alpine has been visiting the Empress Eugenie at Chislehurst. » —The Wanganui Herald refers to a rival's « well-known mendacity of the truth. » —A contemporary in a reassuring article on the Victorian loan, explains that the money will be wanted « in such gentle misstatements that the last batch will not be floated until June, 1893. » —The London Review, writing of the New Zealand Government Insurance office, remarks that « the manner in which the finances of the colony are being administered justifies grave misapprehensions as to the future prospects of the department. » « Our contemporary, » the Insurance Monitor retorts, « takes full advantage of the justification, the whole article consisting solely of grave misapprehensions. » —In an item referring to the famine in Russia, an up-country paper reports: « The peasants in the Orel district are committing crimes in order to escape salvation. » —In a vivid description of an Australian flood recently, the local paper published the following astounding passage: « The omnipotent being sat on the railings of the bridge, and with the coolness characteristic of a colonial youth surveyed the waste of waters. » « Omnipresent boy » was what the disgusted reporter had written.—The following piece of fine writing is from a paper in a northern mining district: « Let the directors take warning in time, and not be puffed up with mythological dividends, worked out on paper, and blated forth to a world in a hey presto species of editorial jugglery, as has been the case, and which editorial clap trap has tended more to damn us as a community in the eyes of all sensible persons outside than the whole of Puhipuhi's other misfortunes. »