Depreciation of Material. (Press News.)

The degree to which material is depreciated by use or time is a question which is attracting much attention among printers to-day. Nothing ever becomes perfect. The machine which was bought last week, perfect in every respect as it seemed to the buyer, may this week be stopped, and a part of it be in the hands of the machinist for repairs. Type is constantly depreciating. Every time it is picked up and put into the stick, every time that the cylinder of the press strikes against it, or every time that it is thrown into the case, it is injured. The care of the compositor, the use of electrotyping, or the absence of demand of that particular kind, may keep it longer, but it goes in the end. Every month or so the dust in the bottom of the cases must be blown out—a dust composed largely of metallic particles detached from the parallelograms of lead and antimony. It is impossible to say how long type will wear. There are country offices in which little call has been made upon particular founts, where instances of type bought thirty or forty years ago may be found. Those of ten years' existence are numerous; but in cities where space is valuable, and where type is discarded after losing its power to make a clear impression, few body founts can be seen in letterpress offices that are over six years old; many founts are completely worn out in two or three years. Formerly, when there was no stereotyping on newspapers, the life of type in those offices was much less. Before 1860 one daily newspaper found it necessary to get a new dress every three months, and another every six months, for at the end of these periods the old dress was completely battered to pieces. Such ill-usage is, however, extreme. The existence of a fount is, generally speaking, for four or five years; the miscellaneous material around the composing room twice that time, and the machines, counting repairs, a dozen years. Thus eight per cent, a year must be applied to the renovation of machines, twenty per cent, to type when very closely used, and ten per cent, to stone, cases, chases, sticks, and so on. Less than this will not keep in good condition an office which is fully employed, but, of course, those in which the plant is equivalent to the use of two score of men, while it doees not employ over a score, will wear out much more slowly.

£1,000 per day is, in round figures, the amount of additional taxation proposed by the Stout-Vogel ministry. On this issue they were beaten, and have appealed to the country—to be defeated again.

An india-rubber « ring » is being formed in the United States. A band of speculators, with consciences as elastic as the material in which they are interesting themselves, are endeavoring to form a « corner » in the trade. They are not expected to succeed.

The Minister for Mines, Mr Larnach, in his nomination address, said his opponent was « a sanguinary perverter of the truth, and if he had got any intelligence, then he could reduce those words to two words only. » Small wonder that the respectable portion of the press is unanimously opposed to the present administration.

The Mail, the thrice-weekly reprint of The Times, distinguished its jubilee number by an ornamental border around each page. The border is a simple silhouette flower, by Bauer & Co., Stuttgart, running from corner-pieces containing the national emblems of rose, thistle, and shamrock.

Messrs A. B. Fleming & Co., of Edinburgh (« the largest printing ink works in the world ») send us a finely-printed quarto pamphlet, with descriptions and illustrations of their extensive works, and advertisements of their wares in many languages—not excepting the Maori! We fear the aboriginal custom will not cover the interpreter's fee. The pamphlet is well worthy of preservation, if only on account of the numerous valuable « wrinkles » on the use and preservation of printers' ink.

Reporters have arduous and too often thankless duties—and never is this more the ease than at election times. They are so much in the habit of turning crude and ungrammatical orations into decent shape that this is looked upon as a matter of course. Afterwards, to be accused of incapacity, and told that the speaker can't undertake to provide them with brains, is a little rough. Such is the singular line taken by a candidate in a northern city, whose meetings conclude with « three howls for the reporters. » But if they declined to report him at all—or still more unkindly, reported him verbatim—what a fuss there would be!