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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 2
[trade dispatches]
Mr McMinn, proprietor of the Manawatu Standard, has been seriously ill, but we are glad to say, is reported to be recovering.
The Tapanui Courier urges the establishment of a mill in New Zealand for the manufacture of white printing paper.
The Auckland Advocate celebrated Leap-Year by a private leap of its own from vol. i, No. 32 into vol. vi, No. 311. For the past two months it has disappeared from among our exchanges, and from its accustomed place in the Napier public library. We suspect it has taken its final leap—into utter extinction.
The Wellington Watchman has succumbed, after three months of gallant struggle. Its failure reflects no credit on the Protestant party of Wellington. Strange to say, the Catholic Times of the same city derives most of its advertising support from nominal Protestants, whose religion it reviles.
Among recent deaths at home we note the names of Sir William Johnston, founder of the firm of W. & A. K. Johnston, geographers, Edinburgh, aged 82; Mr Lachlan McKinnon, one of the proprietors of the Melbourne Argus; Mr E. Dwyer Gray, m.p., late proprietor of the Dublin Freeman's Journal.
At a board meeting of the Napier branch of the N.Z.T.A., held 26th March, one member was admitted. During the month two former members, who had been working in Lyttelton (where no branch exists) were re-admitted on payment of 5/-, the usual entrance fee. One is about to leave for Sydney and the other for Queensland, and their object in re-joining in Hawke's Bay was to obtain clearance cards, as compositors arriving in Australia without credentials from the society, are admitted only on payment of a heavy fine.
The Herald office, Napier, and the new cathedral close at hand, are being fitted up for the electric light. The dynamo, which is to supply both buildings, is on the Herald premises.
The British Printer, conducted by Mr Robert Hilton, and published by Hilton & Jones, is the latest addition to English trade journalism. It is to be published six times a year. From a copy sent us by our London agent, we notice that it is printed in old-face type, and the display is of a thoroughly « Yankee » character. The machine on which it is printed is American, and the presswork is excellent.
The state of the printing trade in the Australian colonies, according to the reports in the A. T. Journal, is still depressed. In Sydney forty hands are out of employment. In Melbourne things are not quite so bad, and it is expected that the exhibition will bring a good deal of work. The society being on bad terms with the management of the present evening paper, is agitating for the establishment of an opposition organ—which, if started, would doubtless go the way of former ventures of the kind. It is not to multiplication of the already numerous offices that the trade can look for relief—experience in New Zealand has demonstrated the contrary long ago.
The success of the new London halfpenny paper, the Star, is almost inexplicable. Men of experience and practical ability have sunk fabulous amounts in vain attempts to establish a new London daily, and Mr T. P. O'Connor, who has proved a conspicuous failure in everything else he has put his hand to, has found this new venture a sudden and unprecedented success. There appears to be nothing remarkable or strikingly original in the paper itself, and the preliminary puff which the Pall Mall Gazette generously (and perhaps unwisely) gave, seems scarcely sufficient to account for it. The Star has simply « gone up like a rocket. » Will it complete the analogy?
The combination of a job-office with a newspaper establishment really seems to warp the editorial judgment. Two rival papers in Napier lately made reference the same evening in their theatrical critiques, to the printed programme. One extolled it as an admirable piece of work. The other said, « As a specimen of printing, the management will doubtless give it a place in their chamber of horrors. » Sometimes an awkward mistake is made. A morning paper some time ago described a ball programme as a disgraceful specimen of typography. Both evening papers the same day complimented the editor on his candor. The job had been printed at his own office!
A London telegram of 19th April reports that in the libel action Peters v. Bradlaugh, a verdict for plaintiff for £200 has been given. Lord Salisbury has withdrawn his action against the same defendant, an apology having been made. Mr Bradlaugh has hitherto had the reputation of being very correct in his public statements; and consequently his assertion that Lord Salisbury had contributed towards the cost of organizing disorderly meetings in London, and that « he had seen the cheque,— » improbable as it was—must have been very injurious to Lord Salisbury. It now turns out to be untrue. Mr Bradlaugh was probably the victim of a hoax; but he will suffer in reputation even more than in pocket.
A Dunedin « evangelist » named Alfred Brunton, was lately sued by a lady for libel, damages being laid at £200. The case occupied the Supreme Court for three days. The defendant, who is pastor of a congregation styling themselves « The Saints, » had written to a relative of the lady in Australia a letter of the most vindictive and scandalous character, and had read a copy of the epistle to a meeting of his flock, as well as to several friends privately. His defence was that the plaintiff's husband had requested him to write the letter, and that it was privileged. He called many witnesses (including the lady's husband, who made as sorry a figure in court as the defendant himself), but was unable to adduce a shred of proof for the disgraceful slanders he had circulated. The jury gave a verdict for the full amount claimed, with costs, which were very heavy.
The Ballarat Typographic Association are aggrieved at the action of the Shearers' Union in sending their work to a non-society office, in which two of the proprietor's daughters are employed. The Shearers' Union decline to alter their arrangements, alleging that the office is a « fair » one. « The idea of the Shearers' Union taking upon themselves to say whether the office is worked fairly or otherwise, » says the A. T. Journal, « is simply a piece of unmitigated impudence. » Yet they are probably as good judges of typographic matters as the A.T.A. is of trade disputes of the bootmakers, tanners and curriers, and wharf-laborers, whom they have so generously subsidized from Society funds.