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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 5

[miscellaneous paragraphs]

In answer to a correspondent, the Paper and Printing Trades Journal writes: It would be a delicate thing to print what you ask for—a list of trade journals printed at Society offices. Several, as we know, that ostensibly advocate trade unionism, are printed in houses which do not pay society wages.

A correspondent writes to a Wellington paper complaining that the Telegraph Department refused to accept « alright » as one word. He thinks it absurd, when « cannot » and « twopence » pass as one. He has no cause of complaint. There is no such word as « alright » in the language, and the Department were perfectly justified in refusing to pass two words as one, even in a mutilated form.

It is estimated that more than £14,000 has been spent in legal expenses by subscribers to the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia in unsuccessful attempts to resist the claims of the proprietors of the work. In most cases, the plea has been that the order was obtained by false representations; in other instances, that the company failed to fulfil the terms of contract. The following case decided in banco in Sydney on the 2nd March, is of interest on account of the point of law involved. In the year 1885 P. H. Sullivan signed an agreement to take the Picturesque Atlas in parts at 5/- per number. The agreement contained two clauses, the first being to the effect that the non-delivery of the work at any specified time should in no way vitiate the contract or release the subscriber from his agreement. According to the second clause the company agreed to deliver the first number of the work during 1886 or 1887, the other numbers to follow as soon after as possible. Defendant contended that he never heard anything about the work from the time of signing the contract till 1890, when forty-two parts of the Atlas, along with an account for £10 10/- were deposited with him. He resisted the plaintiff's claim in the District Court on the ground that the first volume of the work had not been sent to him during the years specified in the agreement; and Judge M'Farland, holding that the latter clause in the contract overpowered the provisions of the former clause, gave a verdict for the defendant. The plaintiff on appeal took the matter before the higher court, which decided that as the two clauses in the contract were at variance, being inconsistent with each other, the former clause, according to a permanent rule of law, must prevail over the latter, and therefore stand as the binding stipulation. The appeal was therefore sustained and the verdict reversed.

At the late meeting of the Canterbury Education Institute, the hon. W. P. Reeves, the retiring President, said: At the risk of raising a smile, he would tell them the easiest way to reach the people—let them go to the newspapers. Now, he dared say that they were thinking, « Oh, this is the old story, There is nothing like leather. This gentleman is speaking as a professional. » But he would tell them that the press was the handiest weapon with which to attack the enemies of the system, and the easiest channel to get at the public. Many of them, doubtless, had a preference for a technical newspaper of their own. Such papers were very useful; but it was not through them that they could hope to get at the great mass of the people. If they wanted to reach the people, they must do so through the daily and weekly journals which they read day by day and week by week. Teachers must step down into the arena of every-day life, and rub shoulders with common mortals. He ventured to say that if they kept in touch with the newspapers they would keep in touch with the public. Doubtless they had often heard this or that newspaper criticism spoken of in a tone of contempt as « a mere newspaper article; » but how often had he seen these lofty gentlemen, who who thought it not worth while to notice « a mere newspaper article, » afterwards come down and repent in sackcloth and ashes. How often had he known some newspaper, not written with any special ability, by dint of persistently pegging away, lead—or if they preferred it, mislead—an entire district. He asked them to remember that, and not despise newspapers. The newspaper editor might be a very terrible person; but still he was approachable, and it was possible to instruct him judiciously without his imagining that he was being told something that he did not know before. He spoke as one who knew the race.