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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 1
[trade dispatches]
Mr Duncan Dallas, well known as an inventor of photo-engraving processes, has just patented an invention by which photography is applied to the production of elastic printing surfaces, either sunk or in relief. The invention has a wide range of application, including the printing of textile fabrics and paperhangings
A new process of photo-etching is now in use in London, which offers several advantages over former systems. An improved and more durable metal or alloy is used, the engraving is deeper than ordinary; and most important of all (especially for color work), the process is a cold one, so that there is no contraction.
The chief business quarter of Gisborne was swept by a disastrous fire on Monday, 7th March. The loss is estimated at £60,000. Among those whose premises were destroyed we notice the name of Mr T. Adams, bookseller and stationer. Mr Adams managed to remove his stock, but it was seriously damaged by water. This is the third extensive conflagration that has visited Gisborne.
Another destructive fire has to be recorded—this time in Wellington. It broke out at 4.30 a.m. on Sunday, 2nd March, at the rear of Huxley's tailor's shop in Lambton Quay, and raged for four hours, destroying buildings in Lambton Quay and Panama-street. Only a small area was burnt, but as the block consisted of lofty warehouses full of goods, great damage was done. The total loss is estimated at £120,000; insurances, £70,000. No printing offices were destroyed; but Messrs. Edwards and Green's premises were damaged at the rear to the extent of nearly £100. Amongst the property destroyed in Messrs. Kennedy and Macdonald's were a vast quantity of plans of Wellington and nearly every town in the colony; besides a large collection of manuscripts bearing on the history of the place, the results of information assiduously collected by Mr Macdonald for the past sixteen years.
We are in receipt of Stone's Otago and Southland Directory for 1887. This admirable work is a marvel of painstaking compilation. The present is only the fourth issue, and if the work continues to increase in the same ratio, it will soon rival the London Post Office Directory. The printing throughout is beautifully clear and uniform. Most of the work is in nonpareil, three columns to the page. Not the least interesting portion of the book is the advertising department, which we are glad to see is well patronized.
Some months ago a gentleman in Napier (in no way connected with the trade) was so annoyed at the appearance of the worn-out stereotypes of the cheap edition of a popular work he was reading, that he posted the book to the publishers—a leading house in Loudon— with a note of complaint. By return of post he received a letter of thanks for drawing their attention to the fact, and a copy of another work, in acknowledgment. Two or three months passed again, and last San Francisco mail brought him a copy, with the publisher's compliments, of a new edition of the original work, printed from new plates.
The following extraordinary official notice has appeared in the London Gazette:—« Printers and publishers are reminded that any one reprinting without due authority matter which has appeared in any Government publication renders himself liable to the same penalties as those which he might, under like circumstances, have incurred had the Copyright been in private hands.—T. Digby Pigott, Controller.—Her Majesty's Stationery Office, Westminster, November 22, 1886. » That public documents are public property is a fact so well known, that no little surprise was occasioned by the appearance of the notice. The law journals questioned its legality, and the various press associations moved in the matter. In reply to the Provincial Newspapers Society (we learn from the Printers' Register) an official assurance has since been given that « it is not the intention of the Stationery office to interfere with the privileges hitherto allowed to newspapers of publishing information of public interest extracted from Parliamentary papers or the official Gazettes. »