Title: Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 5, Issue 53 (30 May 1891)

Editor: Robert Coupland Harding

In: Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 5

Publication details: Robert Coupland Harding, 1891, Napier

Part of: Typo

License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 New Zealand Licence

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The Blackall unionists in Queensland lately took a ballot on the question of freedom of contract. The result was suggestive: For, 4; against, 160!

The Literary World says: We regret to hear that an old publishing house, which has done noble service to Oriental literature in its time, is in difficulties which seem almost insurmountable.

Mr T. Jones of the Evening Post job department, sends us three neat cards—prize certificates for a flower show. They are ornamented with Berthold's combination rules and Klinkhardt's Germania border.

At a recent meeting of the Gisborne Phonographic Society, its best wishes were tendered to Mr O. Buscke (a popular young man on the Standard staff), who leaves to try his fortunes in Sydney.

An article appears in the B. and C. Printer and Stationer on Cookery and its Literature, in which it is stated that the celebrated direction for roasting a hare, « First catch your hare, » attributed to Mrs Glasse's Book of Cookery, is not to be found in any edition of that work. ؟Who invented the quotation?

The Catholic Times has the following cruel paragraph: « True poesy is not dead. It has gone to live in the Wairarapa. Mr Hogg, member for Masterton, recently while making a presentation of a purse of sovereigns, expressed to the happy testimonialized the hope that the latter 'would, like a wounded dog, flutter back to his nest in Masterton.' We like this! Also we would like to see that wounded dog fluttering back to his little nest, also we should like to see a wounded bird flutter back to its little kennel, and we should be best pleased of all could we see a wounded hog flutter back to its dovecot. » Famous as Mr Hogg is for tangled metaphors, we really think that some Wairarapa P.D. must have been responsible for this one.

A carpenter's plane, which antiquaries assert to be over fifteen hundred years old, has been found in the old Roman city of Silchester. We have not heard, so far, of the discovery of an old Roman composing-stick.

Space must be precious in the large London dailies. A correspondent sends us a batch of advertisements of teachers wanting situations, from the London Standard, all abbreviated in the style of the one quoted below, which occupies just four lines, in ruby type:

A correspondent some time ago drew attention to the peculiar manner in which two or three newspapers had dislocated some of Shakspeare's verses. The example he gave is, we think, outdone by a contemporary, which thus prints a prose speech from The Tempest:

Caliban. As I told thee
Before, I am subject to a tyrant,
A sorcerer, that by his cunning hath
Cheated me of this island.

Although the old fictitious form of indictment, under which every complainant in an assault case was obliged to perjure himself, has been abolished for many years, strange and incredible things may still be found in affidavits drawn up by legal ingenuity. For instance, in a recent charge of threatening language in Auckland, the complainant was made to set forth that accused had threatened to « kick him to the devil, » « which this deponent verily believes, if not restrained, he will do »!

The following curiosity in advertising is from the Greytown Standard:

Here is another from the same quarter:

Lady readers will probably suspect Mr Stanley of protesting overmuch. Marriage is not held to be a social crime; and it is only a gentleman contemplating matrimony who would regard an unfounded report of the the kind as damaging to his character.— Here is an enigma from an East Coast paper:

Advertisements of this kind are not altogether useless. They arouse a harmless spirit of inquiry; and they transfer a certain amount of money from the pockets of foolish people to those of others who can make better use of it—the newspaper men to wit.

A Napier gentleman wrote to London for a copy of the devotional composition « Tenebræ, » and in reply received a copy of the Referee. Which shows that the reputation of the Hawke's Bay folk—who spend more money on horseracing than on any other single item of outlay—has reached the home country.

The late licensing elections resulted in unprecedented successes for the prohibitionists in several important districts. One of these was Wanganui, where they had the support of the Chronicle, but were stoutly opposed by the Herald, the editor of which paper was one of the defeated candidates in the election of licensing committee.

Changes have taken place in the editorial departments of two of the leading American typographical papers. Mr P. S. Munro has been succeeded in the editorship of the Art Printer by Mr W. J. Kelly, who edited the old Model Printer. Mr A. C. Cameron, who has ably edited the Inland Printer from the first, has retired from the position, and his place has been taken by Mr H. O. Shepard, president of the company.

The Daily Graphic lately published a portrait and short sketch of Mr E. F. Clark, Mayor of Toronto, Canada. He commenced life there twenty years ago as devil in a newspaper office, and continued in the printing trade up to the time of his taking office as mayor, three years ago. He is very popular, and has just been elected for the fourth time to the office of mayor,—his opponents being unable to find an equally good man to fill his place. He also holds a seat in the Ontario government, and is a strong Conservative.

The Victorian Custom-house officers are engaged on the brain-racking problem whether to class as a machine or a scientific instrument, the apparatus for mechanically counting the census-cards, which has been imported by a private firm for the Government Statist. If it is decided to be a machine it pays 35 per cent, duty; if a scientific apparatus it is free. Of course it comes equally under either head, and the officials are at a complete loss. The machine being a recent American invention, they can find no precedent, and to bring a little common-sense to bear on the subject would be to outrage all departmental tradition.

« The new journalism, » it is satisfactory to note, is as yet an exotic in these regions. It has never struck root in New Zealand; and even in the much looser condition of popular sentiment in the larger Australian centres it arouses disgust and contempt. The Australian Star is the foremost representative of this class of literature, and is many degrees lower than the abominable New York Police Gazette. This is one of its recent sensation headings: « The Murder Wave.—Bloodshed in Victoria —The Swoop of the Tomahawk and the Bash of the Bludgeon—Poison Mixtures and Pistol Shots—The Flash of the Razor—Jealousy and Slaughter—The Lover's Cure—A. Grim Record. » The article then begins « There is a boom in bloodshed in Victoria, » and proceeds to describe in minute and imaginative detail the murder of a young woman « across whose throat was a great gash from which the rich blood of a robust girl gurgled forth. » ؟Can a lower depth of journalism be imagined than this?