.jpg)
Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 1
[trade dispatches]
About 2 a.m. on 23rd March, a fire occurred at Willis's printing office, Cathedral-square, Christchurch. The building was partially gutted, and considerable damage done to the stock. Insurance, £700 on building, and £2,200 on stock. Cause, unknown. Mr Willis was in Napier at the time.
After the destructive fire of last December, the Napier Telegraph obtained, by return steamer from Auckland, a complete outfit of type, &c, for the newspaper department, from Messrs Baber & Rawlings. One of the items was a 1500lb fount of brevier, with the necessary cases. There is not much need for ordinary offices to send orders out of the colony, when a local firm keeps on hand sufficient stock to furnish an entire office at such short notice.
An interesting question in copyright is thus answered in the Printers' Register: « I have a first copy of a newspaper published in 1800. The paper is still published. Can I safely reprint the first number in the same manner as the Times was published some little time ago over the country? » « The copyright in the articles &c, has long ago expired, but to republish the paper without the permission of the present proprietor would be a piracy of title, and would almost certainly lead to legal proceedings. »
The Irish troubles are illustrating the old proverb about « an ill wind, » and have brought plenty of work to the printers. The Dublin correspondent of Salmon's Circular writes: The state prosecutions, which have extended to such length in the Dublin police courts, will test the resources of the Queen's printers to the utmost. The verbatim reports of the proceedings furnished by the Government reporters daily, must be turned out with equal promptitude, in order to enable the Crown officials to prepare their cases for the Commission Court, should the defendants be sent forward for trial, and also to enable the latter to prepare their defence. Compositors are consequently at a premium, and, as any amount of overtime is now available—men literally working night and day, with but little interval for rest—the wages earned at present by typos, in that and other houses similarly situated, amount to a big weekly « screw. » This state of things will probably last for the next three months.