Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 2

[trade dispatches]

No journalist in New Zealand is more generally known and respected than Mr Gilbert Carson, of the Wanganui Chronicle, and in the heavy loss which the late fire has brought upon him, he has the sincere sympathy of his fellow press-men. We are sorry to see that the meanness of the insurance companies has added to his troubles. They refuse to pay for the burnt machinery, alleging that it can be « reinstated » at the cost of a few pounds! Mr Carson, who knows a little more about printing machinery than insurance agents, and acting, moreover, on the advice of experts, very properly declines to take it over. Meantime, he is without the insurance money. The case will probably come before the Courts. It is impossible to « reinstate » printing machinery that has been through a fire. It may be made to print after a fashion—as a patent mangle might —but all the « temper » has gone out of the metal, every rod and cylinder requires re-turning, every bar is more or less warped and distorted, every plain surface is thrown out of level; and the whole system of accurate adjustments so essential to the purpose of the mechanism is destroyed. Such a machine is worth only its value as old iron.

The November number of the A. T. Journal contains a brief biography of Mr Alexander Gordon Middleton, from which we learn that the deceased was a native of Edinburgh, and served his time on Hugh Miller's Witness, and afterwards joined the literary staff of the Glasgow Citizen. In 1852 he emigrated to Victoria, and after some varied experience in colonial journalism, studied for the Presbyterian ministry; but holding views inconsistent with some of the standards, he associated himself with the Church of England, and was appointed lay reader—an office which he resigned in about a year, on the same conscientious grounds. Returning to his native land, he published a volume of poems—Earnest, and the Pilgrim Poet. Earnest was a protest against the orthodox view of predestination and eternal punishment, and was characterized, according to the leading reviews, by vigor and poetic power, though lacking in artistic finish. He found literature an insufficient support, and after an absence of eight years returned to Victoria and the stick and rule. In 1874 he was appointed editor of the Murchison Advertiser, and in 1877 he married, and went to reside in Melbourne. About seven years ago he bought the Shepparton News, which soon attained a leading position among the country papers, and contained much of the best results of his many years of literary activity, both in prose and verse. About two years ago his sight failed, him, and he became blind. This trial was followed by failure in general health, and about eight months ago he was compelled to part with the News. Among many other valuable and interesting manuscripts he has left a literal translation of the Iliad, which may some day be published.