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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 6
[Dunedin paper]
Most people have heard of Herr Most, one of those people who contrive to get themselves talked about. A Dunedin paper has converted him into a superlative. It attributes complicity in the attempt to murder Carnegie's manager to « Herr, the most notorious anarchist. »
Mr Pulitzer, of the New York World, one of the great journalists of the day, says: « A paper should make enemies constantly, for only by making enemies can a journal expose roguery and serve the public. The most valuable paper to the public is that which has most enemies; and I am glad to say that most papers have many. »
The combination of American typefoundries, reported and denied so many times during the past two years, appears now to be practically accomplished. The association has been organized and incorporated, and officers appointed. Two large firms stand out—Bruce's Sons & Co. and Barnhart Bros, and Spindler. Mr Robert Allison, of Allison & Smith, Cincinnati, was appointed president; Mr W. B. Mackellar, Philadelphia, vice-president. The total valuation of the foundries controlled is $15,000,000, the Mackellar, Smiths & Jordan Company, Philadelphia, standing at the head with a value of $2,000,000. The promoters say that so far from the combination raising the price of type, the opposite effect will be produced, the co operative principle greatly reducing the cost of production.
The sixth part of the American Dictionary of Printing and Book-making extends from « Greek » to « Industrial Co - operation. » The opening page is a reproduction at one view of Savage's list of Greek ligatures. Over and again the value of the photo-engraving processes is shown in this work, much elaborate composition and facsimile engraving being thus dispensed with. The long and valuable article on impositions, unlike those in the subject in other technical works, specially commends itself to the intelligent workman, as it sets out in detail the principles on which the various schemes are based. This work promises, when finished, to be the most complete of its kind in the English language.
The alteration in newspaper postage rates which came into force last month is not quite the boon that it was represented to be. Owing to certain arrangements with the Postal Union, a uniform outward rate of ½d is not practicable; consequently newspapers for Australia and Great Britain are still charged 1d. To all other countries the rate is ½d per 2oz. « This, » it was stated, « practically established a halfpenny rate for newspapers to all parts of the world. » As many of the colonial papers, the weeklies in particular, are much above the single rate, the change means in some cases an increase instead of a decrease. In the case of Typo, a 16-page issue would be charged 1d. This, however, is an improvement on former years, when the large number of copies of this paper sent abroad were charged 2d each. The New Zealand press will not be content until a uniform rate of ½d for all bonâ fide newspapers is in force. It is quite sufficient to pay the postal department for the expense of carriage. It costs more to convey a newspaper to some of the remote inland districts than to the uttermost parts of Europe.
page 61
A recent South Australian exchange says: The railway commissioners have extended the eight hours system to the men employed in the traffic department at stations where the work is continuous. The eight hours system is now in force in every department of the railway service.
At the sale of the Borghese Library at Borne in June a copy of the precious Biblia Panperum was sold to M. Olski, a German bookseller of Venice, for 18,000 francs. The Prefect of the National Library at Rome bid up to 14,000f. Considerable interest attached to the after-fate of the book. On the frontier it was sequestrated by the Minister of Public Instruction until its history could be traced; there being a suspicion that the work did not really belong to the Borghese Library, but was national property smuggled from the library of the Vatican (as had been successfully done in the case of the celebrated Lathanzio bought by Quaritch). Inquiry proved that the suspicion was unfounded, and the book was allowed to pass. It is now in England, where it is said it will remain.
A development of the new Unionism, reported by wire from the United States, really has something to recommend it. « The Buffalo strikers administered a severe thrashing to the president of the Union because the strike failed. » As a means of preventing the recurrence of disastrous and abortive strikes no more effective means could be devised. It puts boards of (compulsory) conciliation quite in the shade. Our Unionists are behind the times. The flogging, last year, of the leaders of the Maritime Council by the men they befooled, and the dealing out of similar rough justice to the editors of the « labors » papers in Dunedin and elsewhere who made so comfortable a living at the strikers' expense, would have been undoubtedly illegal; but would certainly not have been undeserved.
Beyond the self-evident fact that the « earn money at home » advertisements generally emanate from shady quarters, few people know much about them. The N.Z. Methodist has been turning its bulls-eye upon them. It states that they are issued by sweep-promoters, who pay a shilling or two per hundred for correct addresses of the neighbors of their correspondents who are supposed to be probable victims. In a recent sweep circular, quoted by the Methodist, the ingenious promoter announces that « to safeguard the interests of subscribers … under no consideration whatever will the names of successful drawers of horses be divulged without their consent. » The editor points out the very obvious fact that this « safeguards » the promoter from paying any of the prizes unless he thinks fit. The fact that the sweep business is about the most lucrative in the colonies goes far to justify Carlyle's dictum.
The Melbourne Leader thus puts the case for the journalist: The movement which has been revived by the Institute of Journalists for an amendment of the law of libel is one which should receive support from the newspapers of all shades of opinion. There is no room for difference on this point. All are alike concerned in insisting on the demand that colonial legislation should be brought up to the standard of the English law. In England the protection of privilege has been granted to fair and accurate reports of public bodies, and there is no reason why this extension of the principle affirmed under the common law in relation to the proceedings of Parliament and of courts of justice should not similarly be applied here. The power is one which is required in the interest of the community, and there is no more likelihood of the right being abused here than in the old country. Seven years ago the then Attorney-General acknowledged that the anomaly was one which ought to be removed, and the intervening lapse of time has strengthened the argument. Since then experience in England has proved that the change has worked beneficially, and opportunity has been taken to further enlarge the scope of the protection. Newspapers are obliged to run risks enough without rendering them liable for the accurate reproduction of matters which are published for the public advantage. There is another direction in which journals may well seek to obtain a greater measure of security. The bill introduced by Dr. Quick sought to devise a means whereby some check might be imposed on the class of speculative and bogus actions, of which all newspapers have an unpleasant experience. It is not enough to say that the courts will afford protection, for the injury lies in the fact that where principals are men of straw there is no way of obtaining the costs which may be awarded in the case of successful defence. Papers are put to heavy expense with the knowledge that however complete their answer they cannot hope to get any redress from the defeated assailant. Mr Labouchere, of Truth, a noted exposer of shams and swindles, complains that he has an unrealisable asset of £18,000, constituted of costs granted to him in eases which he had successfully defended, but of which he has no expectation of recovering one farthing.
A recent visitor to a lunatic asylum near Sydney saw among the inmates a near relative of a British peer, a brother-in-law of a baronet, a son of a dean of the Church of England clergyman acting as warder, two captains and one colonel of the British army, the brother of a popular novelist, and a member of the famous Light Brigade of Balaclava. So says a contemporary; but there is nothing very remarkable in the record. In an average asylum kings and queens, popes and emperors, are by no means uncommon.
The twenty-fourth volume of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute (1891), just issued, is the largest that has yet appeared, and the number of lithographed plates—51—is, we think, greater than in any of its predecessors. Of these, the thirteen illustrating Mr Maskell's papers on Coccididæ, from drawings by the author, and the one showing certain trap-door spiders, drawn by Mr A. Hamilton in illustration of a paper by Mr Goyen, are specially worthy of note for beauty of drawing and excellent printing. Over sixty pages, or one-eleventh part of the book, are occupied by Mr Maskell's papers on Coccids; and those who have looked with interest for this gentleman's contributions on the subject during the past fourteen years will be sorry to find that he is doubtful whether he will be able to continue to write on the theme which is his favorite study, and which he has invested with such interest. Sir Walter Buller contributes papers on his special subject — New Zealand ornithology; and a number of writers follow with papers on the Moa. The most important of these is by Professor Hutton. It is of great length; and while it contains very little that is original, it brings to a focus nearly all the information on the subject. The antiquity of some of the remains—dating back from early pleistocene to the miocene, or even eocene period, is notable. The great mortality among the birds, as attested by large accumulations of bones, took place in the pleistocene age, apparently long before the advent of man. Though the birds were certainly contemporary with man, and were eaten by the early inhabitants of these Islands, the era is so remote as to be prehistoric; and the Professor, in common with every other scientific authority, utterly rejects the stories told by one or two natives, to the effect that they, or their immediate ancestors, had seen the living bird. In fact, most of these so-called « traditions » are inventions based upon the leading questions put by the missionaries fifty years ago, in connexion with the pictures of struthious birds shown by them to the natives. Fishes, spiders, ascidians, and molluscs occupy a good many pages, and the zoological section is closed by two fragmentary papers on animal instinct. After a short section devoted to geology, Mr Colenso, the oldest and most industrious contributor to the Transactions, follows with a long botanical paper; and Messrs Cheeseman, Kirk, and Thomson also contribute papers on the same science. Among the miscellaneous papers is one of unusual interest by Mr Colenso, containing reminiscences of certain customs of the ancient Maoris which have probably never before been recorded. Mr Colenso also contributes an article entitled « Status Quo, » displaying much labor and research. It is chiefly devoted to a vindication of the late Dr Mantell, F.R.S., from a severe attack published in the Quarterly Review. The Review article appeared many years ago, but had only recently come under the writer's notice. Mr F. R. Chapman fills over sixty pages with an article on the native greenstone or nephrite. The article, though embodying much labor, is largely in the nature of a compilation, and is to that extent unsatisfactory. The Transactions should be devoted to original research— and not swelled with magazine articles of the Chambers's Journal order. Mr Taylor White writes on the animal which he takes to be the native dog of New Zealand. We think that Mr White is as much in error on this subject as he is when he says that the kiore, or native rat, « said to be extinct, is now proved to exist both in the North and South Islands. » It is a disputed point whether the small mountain rat is indigenous—it certainly is not the kiore which was eaten by the natives in bygone years. Mr F. W. C. Sturm, of Hawke's Bay, we believe, is the only living European who has ever seen the animal; and as he is a naturalist, he can speak with some authority. M. Camille Malfroy, c.e., writes an interesting paper on geyser-action; and Mr H. Hill minutely describes the volcanic region of Tongariro and Ruapehu. Dr Bakewell, who has had much experience in the treatment of small-pox, deals with the question « ؟Is it expedient to make Vaccination compulsory? » and answers emphatically in the negative. Leading authorities are now on the anti-vaccination side, and most of their arguments are familiar enough; but Dr Bakewell's most terrible indictment against the practice—that it is responsible for the enormous increase of leprosy in recent years —will be as new to most people as it is startling. Yet after twenty years' experience at Trinidad and elsewhere, Dr Bakewell considers this appalling fact absolutely demonstrated. We are not sure that the quality as a whole of the present volume is in proportion to its extra bulk.
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The following dictum, by Josiah Wedgwood, applies equally to all trades besides his own: « A competition for cheapness and not for excellence of workmanship is the most frequent and certain cause of the rapid decay and entire destruction of arts and manufactures. »
A strange incident is reported from a Philadelphia newspaper-office. One of the compositors a young woman, suddenly fainted at her case, and had to be conveyed to her home. The workman who took up her take found it to be the account of a suicide in another city. The suicide was the young woman's affianced lover; and among forty compositors in the room, the item had fallen to the only one personally interested.
The American gentleman described below has his parallel in the colonies:
He never takes the papers, « they're dull as all creation, »
And besides, he's « up » with everything that goes:
That's why the train has left him when he gallops to the station;
And his friends are dead a year before he knows.
He never takes the papers, for he isn't a believer
In the news and the sensations of the day:
That's why they put his business in the hands of a receiver,
And his creditors are hauling him away.
Copies of two excellent and well-established monthly periodicals in the music trade have reached us from London, No. 178 of Musical Opinion and Music Trade Review, British, Foreign, and Colonial, and No. 179 of the London and Provincial Music Trades Review, both in their fifteenth year. They are filled with matter valuable not only to the musical trade and profession, but also to the outside public who take any interest whatever in the subject, and are both well supported by advertisers. We have made more than one extract from their pages, and but for limitations of space, could have quoted matter from some of the original articles which would have been of interest to our readers.
A note-taker, who has been spending his holidays in Ardnamurchan regions, tells a new Highland anecdote (says an English paper). A Lowland minister heard an earnest discourse by a Highland brother from the text « ؟Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? » in which the preacher, more familiar with Gaelic than English, freely used « leper » and « leopard » as the same word. Thinking to do a kindness, the Lowland cleric spoke to the preacher after the service was over, and explained to him that the one word meant a beast with a spotted skin and the other a man under a painful disease. « Wall, wall, » replied the Highland minister, « it may be that there is that vera fine distinction ye draa between the words. And it also may be that ye came to the house of God in a vera bad frame of mind, prepared to find fault with the weak instrument. And now ؟will ye let me gi'e ye wan word for your own saul? It's this: Beware of that terrible spirit of criticism; it'll land ye in all mainner of infidelity. » The Lowland minister is said to be a wiser man to-day; and we can well believe that he will think twice before he ventures into the vestry of a Highland kirk to correct a native preacher who does not know the difference between a leper and a leopard.
The « unemployed » question is in the front rank in all the Australian colonies, and is scarcely likely to be settled by the simple process of an act of Parliament. The Sydney Mail writes: Meanwhile there is a wide and somewhat wild discussion as to the means by which the lack of employment is to be permanently removed. In some quarters, there is a disposition to look to the Government for a remedy; and it is held that the Government ought to provide employment for the people. The fact, however, is that the Government, being so large an employer of labor directly or indirectly, is in a great measure responsible for the diminution of the amount of private employment, upon the steady growth of which the prosperity of the wage-earners so greatly depends. Employment must come either from the Government or private enterprise. Private enterprise cannot and will not continue to provide it without regard to the question of profit and loss; and if the Government endeavor to provide it without regard to the question of profit and loss, the Government will find itself sooner or later in a state of bankruptcy. If the attempt then be made to escape by means of increased taxation, the effect of that will be to reduce private enterprise to a still lower ebb. To provide abundant employment there should be elasticity and growth in private enterprise; but that requires the creation and maintenance of a sense of stability and confidence; and that again is the very thing which the wage-earning class, by their acceptance and promulgation of crude social theories, by their aggressive action, and by the vagaries of their special representatives in Parliament, have been doing their best to destroy.
In connexion with the Chicago World's Fair, two excellent resolutions have been come to by the Senate. It has decided not to open the show on Sundays, and to prohibit the sale of liquors on the premises.
Mr Earnshaw is not the only M.H.R. who has courted the muse. Fired, probably by his example, Mr E. M. Smith, of New Plymouth, has not only written poetry, but has recited it in the House. This is one of his thrilling stanzas:
The Honorable John Ballánce,
Thy great ability as a finance-
er had long since
Marked thee out for fame
Far, far beyond a comet's name!
Warming with his subject, he proceeded:
The generous public of New Zealand grieved to see
So able a Financial Statement as prepared by thee
Torn to shreds, and scattered to the winds;
But the New Zealand public bids thee
Still the liberal banner bear,
And wave it in the flowing air:
While we, thy followers, too,
Shout « Advance true
Liberalism in New Zealand! »
Turning once more to the Premier, he struck an appropriate attitude, and concluded with the following peroration:
Hoist the Liberal banner high!
On to victory grand
All the Conservative crews defy,
And vote for the Liberal band!
And—and—
Yours to command,
Ye men of pith:
E. M. Smith!
The House gave way to demonstrations of uncontrollable emotion, which lasted for some minutes.