.jpg)
Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 2
[trade dispatches]
We have several times referred to the modern « combination » brass rules as being introduced by Stephenson & Blake. In the B. and C. Printer and Stationer, we find a biography of Mr William Notting, an English brass-rule maker on a large scale, from which we gather that he was the first to introduce « combination » rules, some ten years ago. To Messrs S. B. & Co. is due the introduction of special corners, to avoid mitering. Colonial printers were entirely dependent on typefounders for brass-rule until Herr Berthold established his agencies. Large as Mr Notting's establishment is, we have never seen a single specimen-sheet of his rule, nor do we suppose there is one in New Zealand. It is just about ten years since we first saw his name in the Printer's Register, as having brought out some ingenious designs in brass-rule. We wrote for specimens, but never received any reply. About the same time we wrote to Herr Berthold for a single specimen sheet, and received by return post a large and handsome specimen-book. English manufacturers are not holding their own in the colonial markets. It is not that their wares are not good; but they unwisely despise outside fields which foreign houses are eagerly occupying.
The women (says a contemporary) have scored another victory. The journalists who form « the National Association » of Great Britain have at last at their fourth annual Conference decided that women shall no longer be boycotted on account of their sex. The opposition, however, struggled desperately to the last. The motion that lady journalists should be eligible for membership was met by the previous question, which was lost by 385 to 315. The members present apart from delegates voted 12 against the women and 18 for. Thereupon the resolution passed. It has taken four years to secure the recognition of a claim the justice of which is so obvious that it ought to have been conceded the moment it was raised.
In connexion with the recent break in cable communication, an anecdote is related by a member of the Melbourne Argus staff:— « There was wild excitement in the office. Cable communication had just been restored, and a telephone message had come through the telegraph office to say that the first cable news had been received, and a messenger was on his way up with it. Steam was got up, and preparations made for a special edition, whilst every man on the literary staff waited impatiently for that tardy messenger with his news of what the world had said and done in a fortnight. Five minutes passed—ten—a quarter of an hour—half-an-hour—and the whole office was half mad with anxiety, when the messenger arrived. The editor burst the seal, opened the packet—unfolded the precious document—and found that the match of the Australian cricketers versus (I forget for the moment which club it was), had been stopped by rain! Bathos! That in actual matter of fact was the first news received. Could burlesque go any further? »
In the report of the committee on prices appointed by the Cincinnati Typothetæ, the following remarks occur. Australian and New Zealand printers should weigh them well. « Why should not the employing printer be well paid for his time, money, and energy expended? It is conceded by all that there is no business requiring greater care, judgment, and ability than our own, nor is there any business where annoyances so wear upon mind and body, yes, and soul, than is our chosen calling. Nor is there any line of manufacture where the investment is so large and the shrinkage so great comparatively. One may buy a steam-engine for the price of a half-medium jobber, and the price of a stop-cylinder machine will purchase a railroad locomotive. We pay $1 per pound for type, and after a year or two of service sell it at 5d per pound. Where will one elsewhere find a shrinkage equal to this? Let us no longer sweat and groan under the burden imposed upon us by our own selfish and short-sighted competition. »