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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 3

[miscellaneous paragraphs]

Typo this month is very much behind time. The heavy work in connexion with the issue of our Almanac and Directory has pushed it aside, and the next issue will probably be delayed somewhat, as we intend to include with it our title and index for the year.

The wretched hacks who translate French novels for Vizetelly are paid fourpence a page—a lower wage than the dock laborers received before the strike. It is no wonder that the English of these novels is as bad as their morals.

Our readers will be sorry to know that owing to removal, two of our esteemed correspondents—from Wellington and Auckland—will no longer write from those cities. As regards the former, we do not regard him as lost—he is bound to write on craft matters, wherever he may be. He has tried his fortune farther south, and we wish him success.

The Christchurch Telegraph, referring with pardonable self-satisfaction to its successful exposure of Clampett, the religious imposter, says that « a plucky newspaper can sometimes, at all events, give back to the public something in return for the immunities conferred upon the press. » We would be glad to see a complete list of these « immunities, » We were not aware that the press possessed any. It is often its duty to expose abuses and breaches of trust, and it does so entirely at its own risk, the least mistake rendering it liable to serious consequences.

We have received, through our English agents, further copies of the excellent Canadian paper, the Dominion. Illustrated, two copies of the Bookbinder, the only special organ of the trade, admirably edited and beautifully printed; No. 526 of the Gas and Water Review and Journal of Electric Lighting, one of those excellent and well supported technical periodicals which constitute so important a branch of English journalism; and two copies of the Polytechnic Magazine, the weekly organ of the Young Men's Christian Institute, 309 Regent-st., London, S.W.

The Open Court is the name of a Chicago weekly, « devoted to the Work of Conciliating Religion with Science, » of which No. 107 has reached us. So far as we can judge from the number before us, it differs in no essential respect from any other ably-written scientific paper conducted on the theory that the evolutionary hypothesis is the key to the mystery of nature. As for the task of « conciliation, » it is endless. There is nothing irreligious in science, and nothing unscientific in religion. But if the Open Court survives until it has reconciled religious creeds with scientific theories, it will have a long career.

Mr Martin Simonsen, the head of an opera company lately making a tour through the colony, and which has not had much success, made a strange exhibition of himself at Dunedin. The company's performance of Maritana had been severely criticised in both the morning and evening papers; and on the evening after the appearance of the critique, the Times reporter, on attempting to enter as usual, was shown the door by Mr Harcourt Lee, the conductor, who used unparliamentary language. The piece was Carmen, and there was a very poor house. At the close of the first act, Mr Simonsen came before the curtain, and announced that the company would give no more performances. Referring to the Times reporter, Mr Hutchinson, by name, he said he had a motive in condemning the performance; that his report was a tissue of lies, and that the writer was a liar, a fool, an ass, and no gentleman. The audience laughed and applauded, some no doubt remembering that on a former visit Mr Simonsen spoke in like uncomplimentary terms of the Dunedin public, asserting that they had no taste for opera, and that on his next visit he would bring a troupe of dogs and monkeys! It is probable that Mr Simonsen's ill-judged attack will lead to the adoption by the leading papers of the London system of paying for the reporter's ticket. The « complimentary ticket » is generally understood by the profession to be the equivalent for a complimentary notice. The newspaper that pays is more free to criticise, and its representative is not liable to personal insult.